Design your ideal school

Work in a pair or group to design your ideal school. Discuss your

responses to the following questions first:

 Do you think the current education system works for all young
people? If not, what do you think are the flaws in the system?
Try to think about issues that affect learners across the country.

 What would you change about the school system to make it

more effective?

Structure of the school day

 When would the school day start and end?

 How many lessons would there be each day? Would every day of the week be the
same?

How learning is organised

 Would any lessons be compulsory? Or would students be able to opt in?

 Would you arrange the students and classes by age? Or do you think there is a
better way of grouping learners?

 What would the teachers be like? How would they interact with students?

Designing the look and feel of the school

 What would your school look like? Would it be rural or urban?

 What facilities would it offer?

 What would be the motto for your school (its mission statement)?

 How would you ensure that it was a place of learning rather than a youth club?!

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 Design your ideal school

Task

Now sketch out a plan for your ideal school, making sure that you take into account the
decisions you have made in your group.

Role play

How do you think the following people would feel about your new school?

 Teachers

 Students

 Parents

 Governors

 Other school staff – e.g. site team, kitchen staff etc.

 Employers and local businesses

Write down the key issues about this new school that might excite or trouble each of
these groups. Include reasons why they would be in favour of the changes and any
reasons why they might be against them. You could use the role play cards to note
down your ideas.

Decide on a character to represent and run a meeting in which each of you plays a
different role. Discuss the pros and cons of both the existing and new systems of
schooling. If you have used the role play cards to note down your ideas, you could
now personalise the ideas for a specific character.

Remember to:

 listen carefully to other people’s ideas

 build on what they say

 use Standard English throughout.

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 Design your ideal school

Role play cards



A teacher A student

A parent A governor

Another member of An employer from a

school staff local business

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