Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

Northgate stresses value of school design and engagement for Sustainable Schools agenda

The Department for Education and Skills has set out a clear vision to inspire schools across the country to play a leading role in sustainable development by 2020, according to Northgate Information Solutions.

In a response submitted to the Department’s consultation, Sustainable Schools: For pupils, communities and the environment, Northgate welcomes the establishment of a framework for sustainable schools – but notes that how schools are designed, built and maintained is pivotal to delivering the vision.

Northgate’s response focuses on the value of integrating sustainable development into education and the opportunity for technology to support the full engagement of schools and people living and working around them.

To ensure success, Northgate calls for:

•Early consideration of sustainability in school design to ensure the best platform from which to build engaging and meaningful curriculum material.

•Consideration of how the sustainability aspects of the design and development of current capital projects can be shared with schools in other areas where projects are at an earlier stage of development, as well as contribute to the development of the curriculum on an ongoing basis.

•The introduction of minimum energy efficiency standards across the existing school estate.

•Sustainable development to be considered as an additional specialism for schools – to provide leadership and help develop guidance for older schools; to provide an exciting specialist area with cross-disciplinary implications; and to meet the existing vision for specialist schools in driving up standards across the curriculum.

Darren Lemon, MD of Northgate Education, commented:

“Promoting educational excellence and ICT skills is essential not only to our future as a business but to the country’s future success. We are committed to the sustainable and intelligent use of technology to ensure that it makes a real difference to all stakeholders in the educational experience – whether they are learners, teachers, parents, managers or members of the wider community.

“Our vision is of teachers and pupils empowered by technology and working within transformed learning environments that are fit for the twenty first century; where pupils collaborate, teachers lead, and the barriers between education and the wider community are removed.”

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For More Information:

Fellows’ Associates:

Naomi Stevenson 020 7092 1803 / 07966 890403
Alastair Whitehead020 7092 1806 / 07930 566291