Trias VMBO

Narratives

Educator Narrative

“Preparatory Vocational Education is all about practicing the Hands, the Head and the Heart.”

Ability (hands), Knowledge (head) and Passion (heart): all of them should be practiced equally. For future professionals they’re of great importance. How do I do? What do I do? And I care about what I do!

“All occupations should be showed.”

The students of the lower classes have a difficult choice to make: what job to practise the rest of their lives. To simplify that choice, they are being contacted with the different occupational profiles in an early stage. Every course has its own ‘shop’, located at the Brink. In this way they are showed to the younger student that still follow the main courses. So they can see what’s ‘for sale’. So they can ‘taste’ the different spheres.

“The building has to be an educational aid.”

The students should be astonished and surprised by the building. The idea was to do the construction, the detailing and the energy management of the building in such a way that they would be understandable and measurable for the students. During the courses Biology and Economy the students are learning from these ‘inventions’. Durability is something very practical. Durability is something we want to teach.

Students are stimulated to actively join the building of their learning- and living environment. Not so long ago they started a project by themselves. They want to do something about the concrete surface in the common spaces. They started an art-project. The Engineering division makes the panels. The Creative division makes the posters.

From the start of this year the Winter Gardens have their own theme. There is a Creative Winter Garden. Here the pupils can make and exhibit models and sceneries. There is a Biological Winter Garden also. Here are the plants; here they’re gardening; there’s a huge aquarium and sometimes there are some animals walking around. The school should be a place that invites its completion.

The Training House is in the Workshop. Different groups of student will complete it. It’s going to be a real house. Such big projects are very instructive. They learn us about the integration of the different techniques. Recently, they build a garden shed. It’s located on the roof. It’s a place for students to smoke, because it’s not allowed inside anymore. These are very meaningful assignments. Here we don’t use boring books. Here you handle with real principals, here you make real contracts, here you learn to negotiate. By letting the pupils building their own Winter Gardens, desks and so on, the building becomes the property of the students and they develop a sense of responsibility.

The building itself is the result of a good and breeding discussion between us (the Board of Direction) and the architect, between the education and the world of construction. The architect was very helpful when we had some questions. We doubted if it was possible to create the different working spheres. There was plenty of time for discussion and research. Together we designed new ‘landscapes’.

Recently we had a fashion show. The division Fashion & Commerce made the clothes, the division Care & Health did the make-up, the division Engineering made the scenery and took care of the sound and lightning. It’s good living and learning at this school!

What exemplary ideas do the designs contain that enhance learning?

A school as the real world

Preparatory Vocational Education is a rather new teaching system for trades and crafts, which combines practical and theoretical studies for children between 12-16 years. The aim of the school’s concept is to imitate the real world of workrooms of all types of jobs including those in office environments, care and catering. Begging for support and extra money, the school principal and architect together convinced politicians of all parties to help the school to be a symbol of the belief that giving a brand new school could redevelop the famous Zaan region as a trades and crafts region.

What innovations in the planning, programming and design process supported the realization of those exemplary ideas?

A school with a village square

Literally on a crossing of roads and public transport a property was obtained. The school was designed as a huge factory-like block with facades of tiles, found in the region’s historic big sheds. On the side of the busy provincial road and train track, all the workrooms are situated in this ‘factory’. Here, students learn to work together on all manner of materials. Alongside this ‘factory’, a huge central covered ‘village square’, ‘the Brink’ is the centre of the school. It is in this square that students gather, in the morning after they have put away their bike, and during breaks. The Brink is multifunctional and also the place for school parties, and events like mock Trade Fairs where industries can exhibit to get students interested in working with them.

A school with several scales

Wings are situated cross-wise on the Brink, with ‘glasshouses’ in between, and ending in a pond, thus avoiding fences around the school. In these wings, clusters of classrooms on two floors, together with teachers’ rooms and a common room offer a ‘home’ for groups of children so they will not feel lost in the big building. These clusters are also used for practical teaching such as ‘real’ office environments, fashion workrooms, exercise areas for health care, and restaurants.

A school as facility

During the day, the school uses the sports centre, in the evening it is public domain. Like the Brink, the sports centre has a ‘square’ where people can meet after their sporting activities. The Auditorium in between the school and the sports centre, thus usable by both, is situated above the connecting road of two quarters, with a glass façade symbolically showing to the surroundings what is happening in the school.

A school as learning environment

The school itself is designed as a ‘learning environment’. Much effort was put into using many different materials, interesting connections, combination of installations, all to teach students the practice of building, by looking to their own school building. These children, especially, need to be helped to find a positive life goal. That’s why the school building is an example of sustainability. An example is a pipe system which is inserted in the floors for low temperature heating in wintertime and cooling in summertime. The classrooms have natural ventilation. Winter gardens provide special teaching environments. The use of sustainable materials helps the students to learn how to be respectful of our earth’s resources. The layout and separation walls of the school are flexible to enable changes of use in the future. Sunlight collectors on the roof of the sporting facilities provide hot water for the showers. The students can measure all the principles of the different measures. In the near future a collection of different windmills for generating electricity will be added.