Djanogly City Academy

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Case study

Djanogly’s elegant centre is a prominent symbol of excellence in education that is at the heart of the local community. Specialising in information and communication technologies (ICT), this site provides accommodation for three year groups of 270 students each, and also facilitates after-school use to promote lifelong learning.

This audio recording features staff and pupils sharing their thoughts on the new build. A summary of the recording appears below.

Key facts

Type of school: academy
Number on roll: 1,800 (over 37 per cent free school meals (fsm), 53 per cent non-white)
Age range: 11–19
Chief executive: Mike Butler
Cost of redevelopment: £19 million
Date completed: 2003

Background

With the academy based on two sites, the new building houses the 11–14 centre. Conceptually, the key drivers were transparency and legibility, and the form is a simple steel frame that extends along the length of the glazed rectangular building. Internal walls are non-load bearing to provide complete flexibility to suit evolving teaching requirements. With students using ICT in every lesson, and personal computers allocated to 80 per cent of classes, this is a school for the 21st century and beyond.

Vision

The story of the journey of the visioning process as it unfolds, develops and is rolled out is told from the points of view of Mike Butler, chief executive. In their introduction they cover the skills needed to create capacity, the human resource implications, the emotional challenges and the consequent continuing professional development (CPD) needs both before and during the process.

Stakeholders

Mike Butler explains the value of consulting primary students before they join the school. Pupil voice is a key driver, as explained by two of the students. Focus groups remain an ongoing feature of stakeholder engagement. A parent gives a detailed view of her engagement with the process.

Consultation

Mike Butler and the chair of governors give their views, highlighting the absolute necessity of regular, detailed discussions with the architect. They explore the rewards, the imaginative solutions and the frustrations, the need for resilience on the part of the school and the unrelenting attention to detail required at all stages.

Transformational change

The transformation of the ‘caterpillar’ to the ‘butterfly’ is explored using the example of the library as an iconic symbol. The librarian explains her engagement of the primary students before they arrived, while the vice principal develops the anytime, anywhere value of their online library.

Mike Butler and two assistant principals explain how they managed the detrimental effect on morale (during what turned out to be four years spent in temporary accommodation) by testing new approaches to pedagogy through new technology. This also helped establish the all-important culture shift from the old to the new before the move was completed.

Lessons learned

Mike Butler highlights the value of abandoning ideas in the face of adversity. The vice principal explains how the building has underpinned the management of pupil movement and how a different approach to viewing plans might have avoided other circulation problems which were not spotted on the plans. She presents a simple but effective way for others to overcome similar issues in the planning stages.

Impact

Mike Butler, students and a parent discuss the ‘wow’ factor and how to manage those issues that come to light after the initial use of the building.

Next steps

Development of the curriculum and learning needs to continue, particularly with portable learning devices. Mike Butler describes the value of keeping the stakeholders engaged, while the vice-principal explores issues around sustaining what is now underway in their new learning environment, in particular the connectivity for learning devices.

Further information