Mattie McCullough Elementary

Narratives

Architect Narrative

At 33,477 sq.ft., with an initial population of 300 students, this school is designed in the future to have a full build out capacity of 450 students.

The program for this school is designated by the organization that funds school construction, maintaining strict guidelines that dictate the overall area. The total area must meet the standards for schools of similar capacity, and funding level.

Working within the typical guidelines, the school division sought new ideas for the layout and opportunities for this new elementary school. A series of school tours and a visioning session was held at the inception of the design for this school where the committee, parents, students and staff were invited to share their thoughts and ideas. At this collaborative session, several key elements were focused upon including; a school that provided a safe integration of students, bus and parent drop-off within the 4 acre site, environmentally conscious design, significant natural daylight as well as a school that incorporated flexibility and accessibility of technology as easily as the availability of a pencil.

In several schools that exist within the district, as well as those that were toured, typically a separate room was designated as a computer classroom. In these designs and in the teaching philosophy, the students were accessing computers only when they were receiving computer instruction.

The visioning session and the design committee agreed to eliminate the separate computer room in the school and use that space instead for a flexible gathering space and project centres that would provide an additional 160 sq. ft. of shared space between classrooms. As well, the pods are fully wireless and planned to accommodate a moving cart (lab) of laptops. The project centers allow for smaller groups to work on a project during class while still under the instruction and supervision of the teacher. They also allow the teachers aides to work with children who require additional help in a variety of subjects.

The flex spaces are planned to be used in several ways. The classrooms are clustered around this space to organize and focus the pod. The space is large enough for group work, team teaching and is outfitted with all needed infrastructure for computer and other technology requirements. This area also allows the students to display their work providing a level of personalization to the school.

Other flexible design features are the open library, and the multi-use community shelter incorporated into the school. Through a unique partnership with the municipality, the opportunity to include the local community shelter within the new school provided a new community element that would otherwise be missing. The resulting shelter provides for the school a location to maintain a before and after school program, teach daily music, and accommodate numerous other activities within the open space. In return, the community receives evening and weekend use for community groups, access to the gymnasium, and a skating shelter during the winter months. Through the successful collaboration between these two groups, plans for future facilities will also include this unique partnership.

Finally, the school was designed with a separate reading corner in each classroom. The focus of natural light allows this space to have large windows wrapping around the corner and bathing the room in light. The natural daylight reduced the overall number of fixtures needed and contributed toward the energy savings of the school of more than 28% over a typical building model.

Educator Narrative

COMMUNITY SCHOOL

Our new elementary school is considered to be the most child-centred facility in our school division. Since we have opened, the positive comments and continuous excitement founded in the opportunities within this school remain constant and overwhelming.

As part of the design committee that helped the design to unfold, I understand and identify with the opportunities of our school and the philosophical changes they represent. This child-focused elementary school is for the students. It has been designed to reflect the student’s needs while at the same time providing for the teachers a flexible teaching environment.

The integration of the flexible space in the pods and the project centers between the classrooms are truly the most significant change over a typical facility. The philosophy that the computers should be as accessible as a pencil is to a student really drives at the integration of technology into the learning of the students. The project centers have been outfitted with permanent computer stations and allow for group work in these areas, while easily supervised from the classroom space.

The one on one learning and assistance that some students receive is also facilitated in this space and the flexibility is welcome to the school’s environment. The flexible spaces in the pods have allowed for group activity, as well as art work and project work. A welcome use of the flexible space in the pod is the ability to use it for additional crush space for parents picking up children and for dressing for the winter weather.

The community center is another significant addition to the school program. As well as adding additional teaching space, the community centre also allows for our after school programs. Having a multi purpose space that the community shares with our school has enabled our school to use it for classroom instruction during the school day and allowed community access to the gymnasium on evenings and weekends. With the community centre planned as a part of the school structure, security issues are resolved through the thought out location allowing the remainder of the school to be securely locked.

The natural daylight focus and the reading corners for the classrooms have changed the way the teachers are able to instruct. With a specifically focused area for class gathering, teachers take full advantage of this space and find it a welcome addition to the typical classroom layout. This space provides for the teachers a space for group activities, class story time, and even a place for students to read quietly. For many teachers this space also serves as a small classroom library, providing for the students a cosy place, outside the boundaries of the library, where reading is encourage.