A Future Yet to be Written
Kat’s recent site updates show NLCS’s IDEAS Hub taking shape under a foggy winter sky.
It’s a poetic image that fits neatly with the school’s vision for the building. In the text below (from their website) they’ve captured key ways in which they imagine it supporting students’ education. But, as with Somerset College’s ESTEAM Centre, while there’s a sense of excitement in imagining all the possibilities, they also recognise that the future is a mystery - who knows what learning will look like in 10 years’ time? The building is designed to be adaptable and endlessly responsive to its users’ needs, even if they aren’t quite clear to us yet.
ATRIUM: The centrepiece of the IDEAS Hub, the Atrium will be a flexible, light-filled space with seating that can be used for a variety of settings. On any given day, students may attend a lecture or workshop from an eminent scientist, musician, fashion designer, or journalist. Students in History may find the space transformed to reenact the Battle of Waterloo. Students in Model UN may welcome students from neighbouring schools to debate topics such as gender equality, climate action, and global health. Parents may grab a coffee or snack from the Atrium’s café before heading off to work, or to attend an evening workshop on topics ranging from internet safety to managing their child’s perfectionism to preparing for university. Community members may find themselves attending a hands-on lecture or demonstration from a local business, university, or even our own NLCS students.
COLLABORATION STUDY SPACE: Ideal to facilitate small, creative group work, this space will feature a green screen, along with video and audio recording equipment for students to produce podcasts, movies, and shows.
DESIGN SUITES AND WORKSHOPS: These spaces will be ideal for students to design and manufacture prototypes that bring learning to life. For example, students may use this space and equipment to both design and build out a prosthetic limb for an amputee, a water filtration system for a rural village in a developing country, or period clothing for a Shakespearean play held in the Atrium.
MULTIMEDIA ART INSTALLATIONS: These creative spaces throughout the IDEAS Hub can be designed to bring attention to both fun events happening at the School, or to raise awareness about a societal issue taking place in the community, across the UK, or throughout the world.
The IDEAS hub will greatly enhance our world-class curriculum and enrichment program across all subjects. It will bring students, staff, parents, and community members together to bring learning to life. It will facilitate the application of learning in a way that is not possible today, and that uniquely positions NLCS as a preeminent school in the UK. In short, the IDEAS Hub will allow us to better prepare our students for a future that has yet to be written.
