At home in the school building

Tables, chairs, blackboard, teacher's desk at the front: this is what most classrooms have looked like for many decades. However, learning in these rooms has changed. Instead of frontal teaching and learning as a passive attitude, the focus is increasingly on individualised learning at one's own pace, inclusion and integration.

Added to this are heterogeneous classes and a shortage of teachers. «Traditional school buildings are not suitable for all these challenges. A normal classroom doesn't help teachers with these issues; on the contrary, it actually hinders them in their work,» says Peter Fratton, educationalist and school consultant. It should actually be the other way round.

To this day, political and financial requirements are the main focus when building schools.

Back in the 1960s, the Italian educationalist Loris Malaguzzi coined the phrase «space as the third pedagogue», which plays a decisive role in whether children can learn well after their classmates and teachers. Because rooms always create an atmosphere. This can be a feeling of security or unease, fear or safety.

A room can be inviting or forbidding, calming or stimulating. «If I feel comfortable somewhere, my stress level drops and then I can concentrate better,» says Karin Manz, Head of the Chair of Teaching Development and Teaching Research at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland.

What should a school building look like so that children feel comfortable in it?

Parents seem to be aware of this connection - consciously or unconsciously. When asked what is particularly important to them when their children attend school, most (84 per cent) say they want to feel that their children are happy there. At least that was the result of a representative survey conducted by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland on the topic of «Which school does Switzerland want?», for which more than 2,500 parents of school-age children were surveyed in 2022.

But what should a school building look like so that children feel comfortable in it? Karin Manz asked pupils aged six to twelve about this for the «Netzwelten - Lernen in Bewegung» research project. In response, they drew sofas, beds, tree houses and caves.

The welfare of children also concerns spaces that influence their development. This includes schools.

Urs Mauer, Architect

«They wanted places where they could relax and retreat. But also rooms where they can concentrate on their work in peace. There is hardly any of this in a standard school,» says Karin Manz. This is because political and financial requirements are still the main focus when building schools. «By contrast, pupils and teachers are rarely asked what they want to experience at school or what their pedagogical approach is,» says Peter Fratton.

Feel-good factor hardly plays a role

Even architects are surprised that the feel-good factor hardly plays a role in competitions for the construction of new school buildings. Urs Maurer, himself an architect and teacher who has been working as a school building consultant for 20 years, confirms this.

«Unfortunately, there are very few committed people in Switzerland who are in favour of school building construction,» is his experience. Maurer should know, as he initiated and co-founded the Education and Architecture Network in 2009, in which service providers, architects and some representatives of public administrations try to change this - with moderate success.

«Although interior design is so important in schools, I don't yet see any prospect of the feel-good factor becoming more important in Switzerland,» says Urs Maurer. He would like to see an initiative on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Switzerland has also signed. «The best interests of the child enshrined there also apply to the spaces that influence children in their development, and that certainly includes schools,» says Urs Maurer.

Example of a model school

The example of the Alemannenschule Wutöschingen (see pictures) in the district of Waldshut near the Swiss border shows what such a feel-good school could look like. Learners here hardly ever have frontal teaching in a large room, so there are no typical classrooms. The pupils usually learn independently according to a plan that they draw up each week with their learning guides, as the teachers are called here.

Whether they prefer to do this outside, on the sofa, lying on the floor or in the tree house - a kind of wooden balcony - is up to each pupil. «Children are constantly on the move, they also lounge on the most ergonomic office chair, so I don't even need to offer them anything like that,» says Peter Fratton, who has been providing educational support for the construction of the school for twelve years.

What he finds important are alternatives. «A lot of different people with different needs learn in a school, so we also need very different rooms.» After all, the living room at home looks different to the study or dining room.

The main aim is for all pupils to enjoy going to school.

Stefan Ruppaner, Headmaster

Another speciality of the Alemannenschule Wutöschingen: It is always open to pupils, even in the evenings or at weekends. Anyone wishing to study there on a Sunday can enter with their admission card. The sports hall is also not only available during sports lessons . All of this requires a great deal of trust in the students: trust that they want to learn. And trust that they have respect for their learning environment.

Many schools try to build vandal-proof buildings

Former headmaster Stefan Ruppaner, who retired this summer, speaks of a fundamental attitude that underpins everything: The big goal, he says, is for all pupils to enjoy going to school. In order to achieve this, an environment has been created in which they feel comfortable and can learn independently. And because the pupils appreciate this, they also respect the facilities. Vandalism? Not a thing. Why would the pupils break something they like? Another aspect: «Many schools try to build things that are as indestructible and vandal-proof as possible, but this actually encourages a trial of strength,» says Peter Fratton.

Concreted-over playgrounds with steel climbing frames are a disaster.

Karin Manz, education researcher

Schools: «Don't always build from scratch»

In the coming years, most children and teachers will continue to go to school buildings that were not necessarily designed according to a feel-good concept. «But you don't always have to demolish and rebuild straight away,» says Peter Fratton. It would often be enough to turn one classroom into two or two into one in order to create different spaces. To do this, utilise the long school corridors and create corners for concentrated work or relaxation. And also take a closer look at the outside areas.

Karin Manz considers concrete-covered playgrounds with steel climbing frames to be «a disaster» because they are «not suitable for children». Instead, she would like to see a variety of natural materials that change and can be used to make a difference. «Stones to carry, a bit of water, small challenges to balance on,» she says, giving a few examples. «All of this would give the children the opportunity to experience self-efficacy and develop social skills,» says Karin Manz. And especially with younger children, the urge to move is still so strong that lessons in any kind of classroom are only really possible if they can be satisfied in between - both outdoors and indoors.