At St Thomas' we have established ourselves as leaders in the utilisation of flexible and contemporary learning spaces to enhance and transform student learning, creating collaborative learning spaces where students are able to develop their creativity.
Classrooms have been re-designed to cater for all students in order to most effectively assist them to achieve their full potential when learning within the classroom.
Throughout St Thomas', our classrooms have been established with the contemporary vision of catering for the wide range of student learning styles that exist in the 21st century classrooms of today. All of our classrooms have spaces for:
- Working standing up
- Small, large group and whole class
- Pair work
- Floor work – open space
- Independent work
- Brainstorming (whiteboard surfaces)
- Different levels – coffee tables, cushions, stools, etc.
- Use of ICT
- Discussions
Flexible and Contemporary Learning Spaces at St Thomas'
The benefits of these flexible learning spaces include:
- Students are more engaged in their work
- Students who have difficulty focusing are able to employ strategies to help them focus (Hokki stools and stand up working spaces).
- Students are able to make choices about their own learning – what space will be best for the task at hand.
- Teachers can assign suitable spaces more conducive to different tasks (small group, independent, individual, etc.)
- Classrooms look and feel more engaging, inviting and ‘clear’.
- The flexible layout promotes collaboration and communication. The very nature of the furniture allows this to happen more organically.
- Students love working in the flexible spaces. They enjoy being able to choose their working space according to the task they are completing.
- Classrooms look and feel bigger – more spacious. This contributes to the ‘feel’ of the classroom. Students are more relaxed and calm because there is little clutter and more room to move.
- Helps promote the 21st Century Skills we want to see in our students.