The Brisbane Boys’ College Middle School Precinct (MSP) exemplifies 21st century classroom design, learning practices and pedagogies.
The building has been designed around three main principles - community of learners, flexible pedagogy and sustainable place. This development finalises the articulation of three school communities (junior, middle and senior) and provides a cohesive link between these through a central college heart. Importantly, these developments overlay 21st educational practices and tools, flexible design principles and an integrated pastoral care model, resulting in a K-12 educational facility without equal.
The building has been designed to be flexible in all areas, with every space having more than one use. Minimal fixed joinery and furniture has be used, so teachers and students are not locked into any one way of working. Technology is also ubiquitous and flexible – gone are the days of a solely didactic classroom where a teacher stands in one place delivering a PowerPoint at the students. Outdoor teaching spaces on each level also encourage flexible and relevant formal and informal learning opportunities for students.
The design of the spaces enables a range of flexible pedagogies to be used. Classes are able to rapidly shift learning modes within the standard n=25 cohort or expand to n=50 or n=75 with minimal changeover time. The technology, furniture and rooms are configured to equally work as didactic, active/collaborative, discursive and reflective learning modalities. The upper floor of nine rooms can be completely opened up for examinations, open days, whole of year events.
Keynote Address:
These spaces have also been part of a longitudinal research project by Hamilton Wilson, Managing Director, Wilson Architects and Adjunct Professor, School of Architecture, University of Queensland and Matthew O’Brien, Head of Strategic Planning, Brisbane Boys' College. The outcomes to date will be summarised as part of the presentation.
Teacher Feedback
‘Brisbane Boys’ College’s Middle School Precinct has had a monumental impact on the delivery and application of both pastoral and academic fields. Not only has it provided an avenue to deliver best practice with the administration of our social and emotional well-being programs, it has also nurtured the ability for students and staff to be closely aligned. Nothing can compare to seeing first-hand the feelings and emotions (typical of this age) that are not said but moreover seen by their respective teachers. It is this recognition of welfare that forms the most important connection one can envision. In relation to the academic domain, the impact is infinite. Teaching and learning at the College has been stripped of the shackles that bind it to the traditional modes of teaching, now the sky if the limit and you are only regulated by one’s ability to imagine.’
CEFPI Queensland is pleased to acknowledge Steelcase as the sponsor of this event.
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