School in national design award

As part of the British Council for School Environments annual awards, Celebrating the Best of British Schools 2011, Bexhill High School is being put forward under the category of Excellence in Design for Teaching and Learning: Secondary Schools.

Members of the team are Devereux, the architects behind the school design, and Vincent McDonnell from Prospects Services, the education company which worked closely with principal Mike Conn to develop the thinking behind the innovative approach that is now in the school.

“We are very excited that the design of the school that has been so admired by other schools is now to be recognised in a national setting,” said Mike.

“We were so fortunate to have a team working with us who were completely committed to helping design a new school that would help us raise standards of achievement for all our students. It would be wonderful for all of us at the school to see their hard work rewarded through this competition.”

Vincent McDonnell said working with the school was an “amazing experience”.

He commented: “We were asked to create a totally flexible, agile school that would provide a range of new learning opportunities for students to succeed in the 21st century.”

The architects, Devereux, had been selected for the experience they had in working in the higher education sector for designs of universities and colleges.

The design of the school, the thinking behind the creation of the learning spaces and the structures of the curriculum has attracted both local and international interest.

The design has been shared with educationalists as far afield as America, the Gulf region and Australia.

The winners of the BCSE awards will be announced in June.

PICTURED: The new school