This week Teacher Support Network gave evidence to our friends the British Council for School Environments' (BCSE) Great Schools Inquiry, which has been running throughout 2009.

The BCSE aims to explore the role that schools and learning environments play in improving the life chances of children and young people and tackling social inequality.

The Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Estelle Morris, the former Secretary of State for Education, is an independent, evidence based investigation that will feed directly into practice on the ground and into national policy development, and has included architects, contractors, designers, suppliers, local authorities, teachers, parents and young people.

The overall aim of the Inquiry, which is the centrepiece of the BCSE Great Schools Campaign, is to ensure that the unprecedented investment in school buildings achieves the goal of creating great schools for every community.

At the hearing, Teacher Support Network Chief Executive, Julian Stanley, had the opportunity to outline the charity’s beliefs. Emphasising the fact that it is often forgotten that schools are workplaces, Julian explained that by looking after the wellbeing of teachers, schools can reduce the cost of sickness absence and ill-health retirement as well as improve the quality of learning.

Julian also made the point that school buildings must take into account the needs of teachers in regard to the delivery of the curriculum, minimising disruptive behaviour and improving teacher wellbeing itself.

Teacher Support Network has been working with BCSE to ensure that the Building Schools for the Future programme creates environments that cater for the needs of the community – including teachers.

In September last year, we released a report of the subject, entitled ‘Just another brick in the wall? How schools could benefit from better building investment’

We’ll keep you up to date with developments on the Great Schools Enquiry.

These factsheets from our InfoCentre may also be of interest:

• School environment
• Building Schools for the Future - submission to the DCSF Select Committee by Teacher Support Network and BCSE
• Health promoting school