Profile
Profile
About me
I have a passion for excellence in the design of schools and environments for learning. I have extensive experience in schools and colleges as a headteacher and principal. I have worked in the public and private sectors of education, with national and local government, schools, academies, architects, design professionals, industry and universities. I have been a director of WSP Buildings and a founding director of Edunova (an integrated education design consultancy). I have been the lead education design advisor on large scale school building programmes and I have developed and delivered the educational design brief for over 50 schools and academies. I am the Chair of the Association for Learning Environments UK and I have co-edited a new publication, Planning Learning Spaces, to be published by Laurence King in October 2019.
From my background as a qualified teacher I recognise and draw upon my own experience and evidence believing, that to successfully design learning environments within schools, it is critical to fully understand the approach to learning and teaching that the spaces need to facilitate. Through my approach to learning-led design, I ensure that there is a strong emphasis on learning and teaching with the aim of improving educational outcomes and the professional learning of staff. Fundamentally, it is important to me to support schools through the identification of their aims, pedagogy, training needs and the subsequent processes of change. In order to achieve this, I aim to engage all learners and adults in the designing and remodelling of their learning environments.
Contact me
I believe our learning environments and schools need to be designed with a focus on the future and not rebuilt as a reflection of the past. In developing this approach I draw on wide-ranging project experience, research, evidence and networking in the UK and internationally. I work directly with schools and design professionals whilst also leading and contributing to the UK and international workshops and conferences.
