CORE MLE Melbourne Tour 2015-1

Over the next week I have been fortunate enough to be able to join an enthusiastic group of educators in Melbourne on CORE's MLE tour. The tour is hosted primarily by Dr Julia Atkin and CORE's Mark Osborne.

The essence of the week is look at all the elements that are encapsulated, either explicitly or not, in 'school design'. These elements include (in no particular order):

• leadership
• spaces
• teaching and learning structure
• timetabling

School design is not just plan on a piece of paper. That in itself must encapsulate the essence of the Curriculum of which ever country is applicable in why a particular design choice is made (Julia Atkin). A key design element example for any country is to also consider the inclusion of culturally designed spaces.

I am looking forward to hearing the story of what has driven the development of 'what is school' for the communities that we are going to visit over the next week. I am particularly interested to see the contrast between the brand new builds, half new - half old and the 'just making do with what we've got. I want to hear how they have developed their story, shared ownership of that development with teachers, learner and community and built sustainability in what they are doing for the future.

Exciting times. Watch this space!