19/11/2019

Building Schools for The Future // The Importance of a School Master Plan

Creating remarkable learning environments is one of the many challenges faced by education leaders today. Innovation, creativity and managing change is required of our school decision makers to address the economic, demographic and technical shifts that are shaping the future of education now.

Effective school master planning facilitates the forward design of learning environments that will prepare students to make a positive difference in our world.

Embodying a school’s strategic thinking and mission, the master plan is a living document that serves to support and stage settings that motivate, engage and empower our educators and children.

The master planning journey enables school leadership teams to work with their governance bodies and school communities to deliver an action plan which encompasses and considers:

• The school vision and mission
• Spatial programming and how it aligns to the requirements of the curriculum
• Data and information assets and how they apply to investigating human-focused patterns of movement and interaction
• Generating the design of environments through user consultation and involvement
• Recognising the school’s funding model to create investment resources and opportunities, and to tactically drive capital investments to their potential
• Improving the effectiveness of existing infrastructures – building conservation and the treatment of historic structures
• Embracing learning ecosystems that support the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Design (ESD)

Campus master planning is a milestone project which gives education leaders the opportunity to uncover, create and realise the potential of their school’s site. It allows schools to identify issues, problem solve and organise their needs into a program that can be implemented into the future needs of the school’s physical assets and campus infrastructure.