Green school grounds : a study of sustainable landscape design in English primary schools

• Main Author: Hassan, Doaa Esmat Abdel-Kader
• Published: University of Sheffield 2012
• Subjects: 727
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.577571

School design in England has undergone a process of continued development in response to political and educational reforms. The last decade has witnessed unprecedented investment in building schools programmes, which were initiated by the last Labour Government. It had an ambition to build schools that would make a major contribution to promoting sustainability. To date there has been little critical analysis of these new schools and the contribution that their associated landscape has made towards delivering sustainability. Where there has been research this has focused on the performance of new school buildings and social aspects of school grounds. This research has studied the sustainable profiles and potential of landscape in primary schools, aiming to identify the key drivers and challenges to achieving sustainable landscape. Existing environmental and design assessment tools, to varying degrees, undervalued the contribution that landscape can make to environmental performance of schools. As a result, this research developed a comprehensive assessment tool for this purpose. Five new primary schools in England were identified for detailed research into the key drivers which contribute to or challenge delivering sustainable landscape. Site visits and qualitative interviews with the selected schools' designers and headteachers provided information about how they were designed and managed. In depth analysis was done using the developed assessment tool. This study revealed a number of important findings. School grounds are still significantly undervalued in terms of the wider contribution they can make to sustainability. This was reflected in under investment in school grounds and lack of considering their on-going management requirements. Existing policies do not fully recognise and support their potential because of their focus on the building. Schools that did succeed were invariably supported by a highly committed design team, school community and the Local Authority. Irrespective of budget, the most successful designs were those which recognised the potential to integrate the building with the school grounds and to extend this approach to the wider landscape.