“You can’t sit there”: How students claim and police school space through sitting

A guest post by Dr Siobhan Dytham on the rules and rituals that students develop about space and sitting in school

In the Hills, on the Trail of a Radical Priest and Critical Pedagogy

Moving north from Florence you climb up and up, past Fiesole to a ridge formed by Mounts Calavana and Giovi … More

Architecture Schools for Children

A list of organisations running architecture schools for children.

Schools should feel more like home: an interview with Lina Iordanaki

Lina Iordanaki is from Piraeus in Greece. Her first degree was in Primary Education and her master’s degree in Literature … More

Discipline and punish in a Pugin school: an interview with Anne Prendergast

Anne Prendergast has spent 30 years in media and publishing and is currently media director at Strattons: a bespoke advertising … More

The importance of acoustics in learning: an interview with Shane Cryer, Ecophon

Shane Cryer manages the education sector in the UK and Ireland for Swedish acoustic experts, Ecophon. After a career in … More

I started school twice: an interview with Bridget Murray, teacher

Bridget Murray attended primary schools in the late 1970s in Middlesborough, Hertfordshire and Basingstoke, Hampshire (UK) where she also went … More

Allowing for easy interaction: an interview with Hedwig Heinsman, DUS architects, Amsterdam

  Hedwig Heinsman is an architect who grew up in the Dutch Flevopolder and now lives and works in Amsterdam. … More

Interview with Sue Steggles, teacher.

Sue Steggles was a pupil at John Scurr primary school, Bethnal Green in the East End of London in the … More

Interview preview: with special school deputy head Pamela Murphy

Pamela Murphy read Geography at the University of Cambridge before working as a University administrator and then training as a … More

Interview with Suvani Dave

Suvani Dave has attended independent primary and secondary schools in Ashford, Windsor and Hounslow.  She is currently a student in … More

Wiping the slate clean: one way to declutter a primary school

When I asked Catherine Burke what she would wish for if she could change just one thing in all schools, … More

The phantom cloakroom

When I was considering whether to include my own childhood school as one of a series of research visits to … More

Interview with Judith Baines

Judith Baines was born in 1933 and is a former primary school teacher and Deputy Head.  She pioneered progressive teaching … More

Interview with Ruth Benn and Rebecca Skelton, teachers at Sparrow Farm Infants & Nursery school, Feltham.

Ruth Benn and Rebecca Skelton teach at Sparrow Farm Infants & Nursery school in Feltham, close to Heathrow Airport. Rebecca … More

Interview with Georgie Hughes, Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, Tower Hamlets

Georgina (Georgie) Hughes is the Reading Recovery teacher leader for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and also trains teachers … More

Interview with Rima Tarar, architecture student

Rima Tarar was born in Paris in the early 1990s, where she attended nursery and primary school.  One year into … More

Interview with Nicky Manby, Chair of Governors, Pakeman Primary, London

Nicky Manby first became involved with Pakeman Primary, a North London state primary school, as a reading volunteer after a … More

Interview with Dr Ji Yu

Dr Ji Yu, studied for her doctorate in the Education Faculty of the University of Cambridge, investigating the impact of … More

Interview with Dr Catherine Burke

Dr Catherine Burke is a well-known historian of childhood, education and school design whose books include School (2008) and The School … More