In a large school, the sound of the break-time bell can trigger mayhem as hundreds of pupils burst into the main corridors all at once. The bustle and barging, not to mention the noise, can be particularly alienating to new and younger pupils, providing perfect cover for aggression and bullying, especially if there are hidden corners. Not so at Brislington Enterprise College, a 1,400-pupil comprehensive in Bristol, southwest England, which is at the forefront of a national drive to redesign schools. The school has no main corridor. Instead, it is broken up into seven mini-schools or learning communities based in pods coming off the outer side of a long, curved indoor 'street'. Off the inner curve of the street are generic areas kitted out with state-of-the-art technology, such as a learning enterprise zone with banks of laptops, a dance and drama theatre with swanky lights, a film and media unit and a PE space. Bridging the street overhead are staff work stations with glass on either side, allowing passive supervision of the pupils below. The street is light and airy, up to 11 metres wide and with a ceiling two floors high, punctuated by cafe substations and areas to sit or eat. With no two communities having their break at the same time, there are never more than 350 pupils out of class. The same is true at lunchtime. 'What we are finding is that the building is very calm because we don't have 1,400 pupils out at any one time and students know they are visible every moment of the day,' said vice-principal Janine Foale. 'There is always a member of staff who can see absolutely everywhere down the street.' Brislington has been rebuilt as part of a GBP45 billion (HK$573 billion) initiative to renew England's state secondary schools. The aim of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme is not merely to spruce up school facilities, but to allow schools to re-evaluate the education they provide and redesign it to match the needs of the 21st century. Launching a redesign is no guarantee of achieving that and other countries can learn as much from Britain's mistakes as its successes. Some designs have been heavily criticised by MPs. 'Local authorities severely lack imagination,' warned Barry Sheerman, chairman of the parliamentary select committee on education. 'If it is about transforming the experience of teaching and learning and they just build the same corridors with 30 classrooms coming off them left and right, they have lost the plot. There needs to be a founding vision.' But the traditional factory format of school buildings, built for an age when teachers were charged with standing in front of a whole class and feeding them with facts chalked on a blackboard, can severely limit attempts to change direction. And being able to build a new school from scratch is a once-in-50-years opportunity to consult with staff, pupils and parents and decide how to change the school environment and the way that pupils learn. The achievement at Brislington was recognised when its staff won an award as best school team in November's Excellence in Building Schools for the Future Awards and the school was shortlisted for best design. According to principal John Matthews, it was just reward for undertaking a 'journey of transformation' that has involved not just moving into new buildings but applying a 'human-scale' model of education. When he and his staff consulted parents four years ago, many of whom were former pupils, he discovered that their experience of learning in a large school had not been a happy one. 'How are you going to ensure you know my child?' they asked. There was a negative side to the sheer scale of the school which was earmarked for 1,750 places. That was the trigger for Ms Foale and several other staff members to visit some of the pioneers of the small school movement in the United States, such as Boston Academy. 'We wanted to develop an organisation that looked not only at the academic rigour of pupils but their well-being and specialisms as well,' Ms Foale said. It was a deliberate strategy to develop what global schools leadership guru Brian Caldwell calls the spiritual capital of the school - its coherent values and beliefs. As a result of their inquiries, Brislington decided to make the school more responsive to pupils' individual needs by reorganising it into smaller learning communities. 'Research shows this gives pupils and teachers a greater sense of belonging, which improves well-being, and that impacts on standards,' Ms Foale said. The areas around the seven communities - two of Year 7 and 8 pupils (11-13 age group), two of Years 9 to 11 (14-16), one post-16, a unit for the physically disabled and an autistic spectrum unit - all have distinctively coloured glass panels reinforcing their sense of identity. The changing colour pattern also creates an uplifting rainbow effect running down the street, the blue panels at one end catching the morning sun and the red ones at the other bathed in warm light on sunny afternoons. Pupils from each community wear an identity card in their community's distinctive colour, which makes policing who is out at the right break time much easier. But the real purpose of the communities is deeply rooted in the plans for the curriculum and spiritual development of the school. Children are placed in communities that reflect their broad specialisms: the Jaguar pod, for Years 9-11 expressive arts, is a green area; Puma, for Years 9-11 health and social studies is red, and so on. Pupil Jasmine Burns, 15, said: 'It is really nice to have in my community everyone around me I know and get on with.' Lessons are longer, at 100 minutes, which means less time is wasted in unpacking and settling down. For all subjects taken in their community pod, pupils stay in the same place and the teachers move to them, which enables a more flexible timetable. If a group of students has a particular literacy or numeracy need, for example, the formal timetable can be collapsed for them. There are even movable walls so that learning spaces can be changed for subgroups. Tutoring is devolved to get away from traditional whole-class groups. Instead, each student is assigned to a 'learning family' of 10 pupils, led by learning guides, who are either a teacher or a member of support staff from their community. 'Pupils now spend 70 per cent of their time with the same children and members of staff within the community,' Ms Foale said. 'We get to know them much better and it creates a sense of belonging - for pupils and staff.' 'I love it, man,' said pupil Steven Matthews, 16. 'I love the fact that the lessons are longer, because you take in more, and I love the learning families. You definitely feel you are getting more attention, not just jumping up for the next lesson.' Better understanding of pupils' needs is facilitated by abandoning traditional subject department rooms for staff. Teachers covering different subjects prepare lessons alongside each other in the same work station overhanging the street. 'It means we can all work together and share our knowledge and experience of different groups of pupils,' said Aine Moyles, a newly qualified teacher in business studies. The scale and scope of the BSF programme is unmatched anywhere in the world, the parliamentary watchdog says, and involves both building new schools from scratch and adapting existing buildings. But the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Compendium of Exemplary Educational Facilities notes that outstanding new designs of schools are being developed in numerous countries, many of them borrowing ideas. Brislington has the first 'school within a school' design to open under the BSF programme. This crucial stage of the design process enabled John Matthews' team to think first about how it wanted to organise the school. 'We looked at research, at how if we maintained our scale we could devise ways of working to ensure that each child was known, had a sense of belonging and that we would be able to support the child in their learning. That was the critical factor,' he said. Brislington: www.because.org.uk OECD compendium: www.oecd.org/document/62/0,3343,en_2649_35961311_36264702_1_1_1_1,00.ht… Brendan O'Malley is former international editor of The Times Educational Supplement and works as a freelance consultant for Unesco. brendanomalley.journalist@googlemail.com