PLS in practice blog

Week 23

July 30, 2021

This week we are back at Oranga School for the Official Opening of their two new collaborative learning spaces, Block 2 and 3. Such an important event for a school needs an equally important visitor to cut the ribbon and who better than New Zealand’s Prime Minister, ‘The Right Honourable’ Jacinda Ardern. The opening was…

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Week 22

July 23, 2021

Re-designing a learning space is not something that is left to just school leaders and designers. The students must be involved in order to feel part of the process. Our PLS Design Framework relies on the thoughts of the students at different stages, so that we can ensure their ideas are incorporated into the new…

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Week 21

July 16, 2021

This week, we are back in Grey Lynn School to catch up with the year 1 and 2s to see how they are defining learning activities within their use of space. Transitioning into the use of more collaborative learning environments is a learning journey for students and all staff. The Planning Learning Spaces in Practice…

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Week 20

July 9, 2021

This week I went back to Trumpington Park Primary School to find out from the staff what they thought about the PLS Design Framework and the impact it has had on their teaching and the student’s learning. Now that the full class has moved into the space, both teachers, Anna Patuck and Emma Norman, have…

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Week 19

July 2, 2021

I last updated you about Grey Lynn School in week 11, where we saw the ‘Activity Poster’ project come together. The posters have now made their way into the ‘Learning Hubs’ where both teachers and children have had a chance to use them to support their daily activities. With school holidays and a senior camp…

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Week 18

June 25, 2021

This week I went back to Trumpington Park Primary School to observe the full class of year 4 students in their new learning space. You may remember back to my earlier blog posts; the year 4 students were first using the new room in small groups before moving the full class in. By starting off…

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Week 17

June 18, 2021

The students in Year 3 and 4 at Oranga School have now moved into their newly refurbished two Hub modern learning environment. It was previously a standard series of 6 single cell classrooms. An early morning blessing was held the week before the school moved in, and was led by two Māori elders from the…

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Week 16

June 11, 2021

Making a reality of our vision for learning at Trumpington Park Primary School. When staff at Trumpington Park Primary School were taken through the PLS Design Framework, they identified several key areas that they wanted to develop as their next practice within their new learning space. These included; Ensuring the learning space promotes collaboration to…

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Week 15

May 26, 2021

This week’s post is back to Oranga School in central Auckland, where we look a little closer at the two major building initiatives under development on the school site, and some of the support Planning Learning Spaces was able to offer Bridget Lummis, the newly appointed Principal of the school. The ‘New Build’ a 5-classroom…

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Week 14

May 21, 2021

This week I went back to Trumpington Park Primary School, to see how the students and staff were settling into their new learning space. As you may remember from my previous blog posts, this space has been designed with specific learning zones, so it was interesting to see how these were being used by the…

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Week 13

May 14, 2021

Oranga School is located in the small residential suburb of Oranga, Auckland, New Zealand. The school sits in the shadow of the extinct volcano Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill) and is nine kilometres to the southeast of the city centre. It has a current roll of 360 comprising mainly Pākehā and Tongan students, and smaller groups…

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Week 12

May 7, 2021

What are the benefits of having learning zones within a collaborative learning space? Designated activity areas. Students learn and embed new skills in these zones. Opportunities for collaboration between students. Teachers and support staff can work with smaller groups. Equipment and resources assigned to specific areas of the learning space. Gives students the option of…

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Week 11

April 30, 2021

In our last post from Grey Lynn School (NZ), the staff wanted to develop how they could clearly identify and convey what a learning activity involved and how it was going to be conducted in the specific zone within the learning space. Our New Zealand facilitator, Doug Crutch met up with School Principal, Alicia Whata…

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Week 10

April 23, 2021

Staff at Trumpington Park Primary School in Cambridge, have been led through the PLS Design Framework to re-design their Year 4 classroom. In addition to introducing zones within the room, staff were keen to look at how specific types of kit could enhance the way they delivered teaching and how their students could learn in…

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Week 9

April 16, 2021

This week, our New Zealand co-ordinator, Doug Crutch, went to visit the staff and students at Grey Lynn to see how the school was progressing with their new way of learning. After being introduced to the PLS process and its take on zones and activities, the staff at Grey Lynn School are in an ongoing…

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Week 8

April 9, 2021

Staff at Trumpington Park Primary School are pleased about having their newly designed learning space available, ready for students to use at the start of the Summer term. Reflecting on their new Year 4 learning environment, teachers Emma Norman and Anna Patuck give us their views. “Our new year 4 space feels fresh, bright and…

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Week 7

March 26, 2021

Making a reality of your vision It is rewarding to see as we are developing our PLS process in practice, how reflecting on the vision of a school, defining current and next practice are key design drivers for the design of new spaces in schools. This further supports the process of engaging all stakeholders around…

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Week 6

March 19, 2021

As a result of the successful implementation of our PLS process at two schools, we will be showcasing the Design Framework we have created at the GESS Dubai Education Global Leadership Summit next week. By joining us for the virtual session, you will gain an insight as to what our PLS process involves and how…

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Week 5

March 5, 2021

You cannot design a learning space without understanding the pedagogy behind it. To fully comprehend what a learning space needs, you must work with the teachers to find out whether they are able to use the space effectively or whether it needs to be modified to have the best possible outcome on the learning and…

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Week 4

February 26, 2021

Our Planning Learning Spaces in Practice project at Grey Lynn school, New Zealand, has continued to support the staff in re-thinking and further developing the critical links between pedagogy and space in their new collaborative learning environments. The staff and students have moved from single cell, teacher-directed group organisation into open collaborative spaces. This left…

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Week 3

February 19, 2021

This week the PLS team went to Trumpington Park Primary School to create a new learning space. After months of planning, analysing the School vision and building links between pedagogy and space, we were able to deliver and install the new kit that the staff had carefully chosen for the learning environment. We have taken…

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Week 2

February 12, 2021

The staff and students at Grey Lynn school in New Zealand have moved from single cell, teacher-directed group organisation into open collaborative spaces, in line with developing New Zealand government policy. This has left principal, Alicia Whata, with the challenge of transitioning staff and learners from their existing practices to working in the new open-plan…

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Week 1

January 28, 2021

Schools and governments around the world are starting to recognise that learning spaces have a significant impact on academic attainment.  There is a growing body of research showing that classrooms purposefully designed to support the learning activities that go on in them, rather than ‘one size fits all’ boxes, provide clear benefits to learners and…

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