The general educational principles listed below reflect the NSW department’s vision for learning environment design. Learner-centred schools are designed by combining these principles with local needs.
First and foremost, focus on the needs of learners and learning.
Education Principle 2
Build community and identity and create a culture of welcome, inclusion and belonging that reflects and respects diversity within the school’s community.
Education Principle 3
Be aesthetically pleasing.
Education Principle 4
Provide contemporary, sustainable learning environments that:
Promote learning for students and teachers through collaboration, social interaction and active investigation.
Encourage the development of learner self-regulation skills.
Support a full range of teaching strategies.
Facilitate learning and connection anywhere, anytime by providing seamless access to ICT and integration of learning resources throughout the learning spaces.
Be integrated into, and maximise the use of the natural environment
Enable aspects of the buildings, building design and outdoor spaces to be learning tools in themselves—for example, learning from the ecologically sustainable features of the design and associated energy management systems.
Are age and stage appropriate.
Education Principle 5
Embed the potential for re-configurability, both in the present for multi-purpose use and over time for changing needs.
