TY GODDARD is an energetic man. And public-spirited too: as we walk along the River Thames near his office at London Bridge, he tells me about the events he’s been attending in the past week, all the while stooping to collect discarded drinks cartons from the pavement to throw in a bin.

Goddard has been busy. The Global Learning Environments Summit in Dagenham on June 19 was the launchpad for the British Council for School Environments (BCSE), a new foundation for learning environments. It is a membership organisation, headed by Goddard, who is also the managing director of School Works, the schools design advisory body that will gradually be absorbed into the BCSE.

The new council came into being, he says, to address the “massive” challenge to schools and the people who build them presented by Building Schools for the Future, the Government’s scheme to renew every school building in 10 to 15 years. “The challenge is (that we come) from a structure where we patched and mended all of our infrastructure,” he says. “But now there’s the opportunity with government investment to take a hard look at the massive refurbishment of the school estate and the building of new schools. We haven’t built as many schools as we’re about to do since the Victorian age.”

Respecting the views of young people is key to the design process. “We need more thought, imagination and the realisation that children are probably more sophisticated than my generation (was),” he says. “Adults wouldn’t put up with the toilets in schools that we expect pupils to put up with. Why is that?” He suggests that it has to do with our discomfort with children’s rights, and the negative view of young people created by the media. “Our knee-jerk position seems to be to see young people as problems first, hoodies second, ASBO recipients third. I’m not making less of the real worries out there, but there are some amazing young people who never get the coverage. They know how they want to be treated and how they want to be taught.”

Creating decent schools is one thing, but that’s not enough — they should be beautiful, inspiring places of learning. Goddard calls them the third teacher: the family is the first, the teacher the second, but buildings are the support. “A bad building can get in the way; a good building, if it’s linked to teaching and learning and really thought through, can be a catalyst for change and for young people to get remotivated.”

How is the BCSE going to ensure that schools are the utopian learning centres that Goddard envisages? “I don’t want this to be another organisation that just produces things that are left on shelves. We must make sure that we begin to develop a common language. What you get is builders talking building, architects talking architecture, educators talking education.” The BCSE will provide training and online forums, and opportunities to share good practice. Goddard sets great store by the founding members of the council, a group of about 30 organisations that include Carillion, the infrastructure company, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, as well as schools and county councils. He expects the membership to grow and says that “there’s a great thirst for knowledge out there”.

Fighting for quality in schools is nothing new to him. His first taste was as chairman of education at Lambeth council in London and he has acted as adviser to the Department for Education and Skills on extended schools. He believes that the educational establishment has finally got the investment it wants and feels duty-bound to ensure that it’s spent wisely.
www.school-works.org

TY GODDARD FACT FILE

Born: June 16, 1963, in Stockport
Career: The UK and European political adviser for the NSPCC, then the national campaigns co-ordinator for Scope. In 1998 he was elected to Lambeth Council and became chairman of education. Since then he has been Brighton and Hove City Council’s schools in the community strategic manager and an adviser to the DfES on extended schools. He was appointed managing director of School Works in December 2004.
He says: “I still believe in local government even after working in it. And that’s quite a shock.”
Little-known facts: His real name is Teifion; his hobbies are stamp-collecting, tennis and drinking Gales Ales.

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