Lessons without walls: Inside the school of the future

If you had the chance to tear up the traditional school design with its classrooms, corridors and whiteboards, and create a space that would stimulate pupils to learn, what would you do? That was the choice faced by Kent County Council six years ago. Confronted with dwindling pupil numbers and poor exam results, they took a deep breath, went back to the drawing board and created the kind of big splashy spaces that advertising agencies use to get people brainstorming.

The result is a school deep in the heart of Kent that is part way through a bold experiment to turn children into consumers of education. Using their own shiny new Tablet PCs, each pupil at New Line Learning Academy in Maidstone will be in charge of his or her learning programming, liaising with teachers either virtually or in the flesh in vast, open-plan "learning plazas" that hold up to 120 children. Gone are the classrooms of 30, and corridors rife with opportunities for mischief and bullying. Gone are the old "chalk and talk" styles of teaching. Here, teachers circulate around fluid groups of children, acting as mentors rather than lecturing from a whiteboard.

This is the brave new world being created by Kent Education Authority, which has the largest population of secondary schools nationally and some of the worst results. Previously Oldborough Manor and Senacre, the two schools that now form New Line Learning Academy were ranked 102nd and 103rd out of the county's 103 schools. Oldborough Manor had a dismal GCSE A*-C pass rate of 12 per cent; Senacre, the larger school, scored 38 per cent. They were prime candidates for a radical makeover.

The speed and gusto with which Kent is reinventing its school stock as a result of subsequently winning the biggest national slice of Tony Blair's schools rebuilding programme money is truly impressive. But it's not just about shiny new buildings or flashy classrooms filled with flat screen TVs.

Kent has been working with leading educationalists, technology specialists and architects to ensure that its new wave of schools delivers a truly 21st-century education. Microsoft has been advising them on technology, and Gensler, the architects who designed the Apple store in New York, are the design adviser.

For Dr Gerry, New Line Academy's executive principal, the whole exercise is about providing inspiration for children through the educational process and beyond, giving them bigger ideas about what they can do with their brains, and consequently their lives. The design of classroom spaces is a testament to the Academy's commitment to place technology at the centre of teaching and learning.

So far, this experiment is still at prototype stage. The New Line Academy proper will not be finished until 2010. Meanwhile, there are two prototype learning plazas on the Academy's transitional, sprawling site of prefab huts and low-level 60s classrooms, both converted out of former gymnasium blocks. Plaza one is a Teletubby-style space, filled with bright graphics, jolly red walls and acid green, banana-shaped tiered seating blocks. This one was developed with Allsop architects two years ago, and has provided a more friendly introduction to last year's 11-year-olds into the terrifying world of secondary school.

The children, now in Year 8, have moved into the latest version of the learning plazas, designed by Gensler, which is a far more grown-up, glamorous affair, with huge flat-screen TVs, biometric lighting and slick, grey and white furniture more akin to a West End office block than a suburban school.

You would think 90 children, rattling around this massive space, would be chaos. Far from it. The thick carpeting means there's no scraping or clattering as pupils and furniture are moved around. Children have to remove their shoes at the entrance. There is a quiet buzz of chatter as they settle into their study groups. Yes, there are boys flicking pens around, but mostly the 12 and 13-year-olds are trying to get on with their tasks. The three teachers and two assistants have clear sightlines across the room, so that they can spot instantly where help is needed. And the furniture can be rearranged to create a lecture theatre, small workshop groups or private study spaces, as the lessons require.

The children themselves are largely enthusiastic about the innovation, though one inevitably professes himself bored already. "This is a great school," bellows another boy, as Academy head Guy Hewitt and I enter the hall. Others are particularly impressed by the presence – and dimensions – of the TV screens.

The biggest challenge, clearly, is for the teachers, who have to create a very different way of working, and monitor 90 restless children at a time. "It allows for very creative teaching, as long as you get the right people on the team," says Hewitt. Luckily, he had the opportunity to cherrypick teachers who were up for this particular challenge when selecting from the merged schools' staff. He was left, he says, with 70 per cent good to excellent teachers. "We now have 95 per cent," he adds.

It's too early to talk of meaningful results, but the combined impact of these new learning spaces, plus the uniting of an enthusiastic and committed staff behind a clear, progressive agenda, is already apparently reaping rewards: attendance levels are now up over 90 per cent and exclusions are down 40 per cent. Last year the Academy achieved a 45 per cent GSCE grade A*-C pass rate, a dramatic improvement on the results of the two former schools.

And there's no going back. When the 1,000-pupil New Line Learning Academy building opens in September 2010 it will comprise three general learning plazas, with space for between 90 and 120 children in each, and a series of four destination plazas for science, art, PE and technology. There will be no other classrooms, and hardly any corridors.

Hewitt insists that he is not, at any point, going to ask the architects and contractors to provide for the later insertion of classrooms – or corridors. "I don't care if it's more work as long as it's better," he says. "We are trying to prepare our youngsters for success in the 21st century. I firmly believe that the model we are creating here will be copied around the world. Right now, I can't imagine a more exciting school to be working in."

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