Becky Fennelly is in the design team at Woodlands school in Basildon, Essex, that consists of two year 11 students and three from year 9. She had low expectations of how much say she would get in the design process, but says she was surprised.
"I thought we'd have a little bit of a say in this, with the adults taking over the meetings, but it wasn't like that at all," says Becky. "The adults just guided us, and really respected our ideas. All our ideas were taken into consideration, and if an idea wasn't practical it would be adapted so that it was. They let us go off on tangents and express our feelings, but always bought us back to work out good ideas."
Becky's mother, Jan Fennelly, says there is no one better than a child to design a school. One idea from the Woodlands school team is to get rid of square desks and instead use a "pizza" table — a large, circular table that the whole class can sit around — that can be broken into "pizza slice" triangles for work in smaller groups. Another idea from students at Woodlands is an amphitheatre area with historic features, for outdoor assemblies during summer and school performances.
Evie Oxlee, Lilly Abbott and Chloe Pigrum are the year 9 members of the De La Salle school team. Mother of Evie, Jane Oxlee, says the scheme was an opportunity for her daughter to learn to interact with people at different levels.
"Children getting involved in Building Schools for the Future is important, as at the end of the day they've got to be there," says Oxlee. "It's important they're being asked their opinions, as things that are important to teenagers aren't necessarily important for adults."
Evie agrees: "I think Building Schools for the Future is really important as we get to decide what's important to us, what's important to our learning, and what will help us."
Mandy Abbott, mum to Lilly, says she likes the way her daughter and the rest of her team have had to work with children from other schools in the borough: "They've had to learn to work as a unit. That's an experience in itself."
In the long term, getting students involved in their own school design can only be a positive move, says Linda Coster. "Because of the area we're in, if students had more involvement in designing their schools, they might have more pride in them. If students think there's something wrong and they put it right, eventually it's got to be good for everyone."
"I think the project is important," adds Chloe. "Pupils are going to be the ones using schools so it's important they get their own ideas into it, because it will be beneficial for them and new pupils."
Lilly concludes: "The best bit is knowing what other kids can have when we've left school. We're making it better for other kids."
