Education Partners

The Smarter Spaces campaign

When you think of a traditional classroom, a few things come to mind: magnolia walls, regimental rows of desks and harsh strip lighting. But, adding a splash of colour, warm lighting and ensuring a comfortable temperature can make a huge difference to the way learners and teachers think and feel - creating an enhanced learning environment (that is our classrooms, school buildings and even the grounds in which they sit) that stimulates learning and teaching.

We believe learning environments that take these factors into account are Smarter Spaces, but feel the understanding of the value of doing this is relatively limited within the education sector and confined to a number of innovators.

This is why we launched the Smarter Spaces campaign in early 2015 - to grow understanding of the current state of learning environments and the physical factors that can support education.

The Smarter Spaces coalition

At the very beginning of our exciting journey in March 2015, we brought together some of the leading lights of the education, design and policymaking sectors to form a coalition of people who are ambitious about their plans for the classroom and truly believe in the value of creating Smarter Spaces in their schools.

The founding members of the Smarter Spaces coalition, spearheaded by world-leading pedagogical expert Stephen Heppell, are continually engaging with teachers, pupils, parents and designers to reflect on what works best for schools.

Through doing so, the Smarter Spaces coalition has grown into a truly unique alliance of influential figures who are collectively committed to the campaign, including Janet Hayward, Professor Peter Barrett, the Schools Network, Teach First and CBI to name a few.

Over the next few years, the Smarter Spaces coalition will be spreading the word about the value of investment in learning environments - serving as the catalyst for a growing understanding of the importance of the issue.