The Riba Stirling Prize architecture award, announced last night, has been given to the re-vamped Burntwood School in Wandsworth.  From the images,  it seems to be a bright and colourful set of buildings, although the inset window designs are very similar to an accommodation block in which I lived in Rosyth, Scotland during 1967.  It was disappointing, therefore, to see television footage of the new school depicting desks in regimented rows facing a smartboard, which I suspect was just like the previous design of the classroom.  The school looks very nice, but is it fit for the 21st Century?

The main point is that £40m and three years were taken to produce what would appear to be superficial restructuring for over 1,700 students, not all of whom will be well behaved.  As all educators know, nooks and crannies provide areas very hard to supervise during breaks, lunch periods and going home time giving ample opportunity for bullying and other bad behaviour.  1700 students on-site can be, as I know from my own experience, very challenging to control.

The Headteacher would no doubt challenge my assumption that some bad behaviour will occur, but how much better for students and staff would it have been to build a smaller, high specification school, with classrooms proving interesting layouts and opportunities, with some of the girls working at home or elsewhere on MOOC-style provision of their curriculum?

What is your view?

BBC News - Riba Stirling Prize