Needing To Upgrade Your School Facilities? Here’s Where To Start.

If your school is growing or looking to upgrade aging facilities, there are a lot of factors you may be considering. School facility upgrades and expansion don’t happen every day, so it’s important to get it right. It can be a challenge to know where to begin, but Ashley Cooper can help you make this project extremely beneficial for your school.  

To help you out, here are 4 things you should consider when starting an upgrade to your school facilities. 

Use your existing space 

Sometimes the fastest and most affordable option for a school facility upgrade is to reimagine the existing spaces your school has. Review areas of your school that are underutilised. These spaces can then be reimagined and transformed to meet the current needs of your school.  

There are many options here. Multi-purpose rooms can be transformed into classrooms by putting up some walls, or even some dividers. Other unused outdoor spaces could be turned into new play spaces for students. Plus so much more, the limit is your creativity.  

Renovations to existing school spaces can show that the school is ever evolving and improving to provide better outcomes for its students.  

Prioritise the most important elements of your school facilities upgrade first 

It is easy to have a long list of projects you want to undertake. But with school budgets as they are, it may not be possible to complete each item to the quality and speed required. So, it is best to divide up the projects to provide priority tasks first. These will deal with new enrolments, and upgrades of facilities which are core to your school.  

If you get an influx of new students, you should prioritise new classrooms. If your school prides itself on its arts program, then upgrading the school theatre and practice rooms may be a higher priority.   

Look into modern school design thought 

The future of what school is, and the needs we have in our classrooms every day has been transformed by the pandemic. Flexibility and versatility have become paramount, along with brighter spaces with lots of fresh air.  

On top of that, climate change has pushed into question the materials we use when building spaces. Concrete and steel construction is highly carbon intensive, so newer low-carbon concretes and the reintroduction of timber construction is becoming more commonplace.  

Technological change is also reimagining what the modern classroom can be. With part-time schooling from home becoming the new normal, our classrooms need to adapt to this. But not only do the classrooms, but social spaces. Social interaction is becoming even more important at schools as the time students have to get the social interactions they need for their development is decreasing. So, design around these core ideas is vital.   

Consider your long and short-term goals 

Any changes you make to your school will have an impact for a long time. When you come talk to us at Ashley Cooper we will take you through both your immediate needs and the long-term impact this project will have on your school. There are a lot of considerations to make on how future technologies and needs of your school can integrate well into the space.  

A common long-term goal that new school infrastructure has is the reduction in a school’s role in spreading disease. This has become especially apparent due to COVID. So there are a lot of design elements being integrated into new projects such as: 

  • Touchless technology for doors, lights, and bathrooms. 
  • Easily cleanable surfaces.  
  • Improved air ventilation, whether through designing more open spaces, or retrofitting improved filtration systems.  
  • Anti-microbial surfaces.  

Get started 

When you come and discuss your school facilities upgrade project with us at Ashley Cooper, we will discuss all four of the above considerations. To make the most of your school facilities upgrade come have a chat with our experienced team and see the difference we can make together to your school. Reach out to us today.