If, as Paul Keating anticipated, Australia is to be the "clever country", MLC Burwood's new Junior School makes the latest and most significant contribution to that claim. The new school opened in February and is Sydney's most innovative environment for childhood learning.
Based on Reggio Emilia early childhood learning principles, the MLC Junior School is described as "sensory rich". It offers direct access to landscaped outdoor green courtyards and "piazzas" designed as places of learning and stimulation. According to Reggio Emilia principles, the physical environment that children inhabit, is one of the major factors affecting childhood learning. The new school has been conceived as a village where children engage in their community with teachers acting as guides.
The concept of "class rooms" with rows of desks and children facing their teacher and blackboard is now replaced with learning "studios", "group meeting" and "casual learning" spaces where children relax and learn. An information "hub" replaces the traditional library where computer terminals and digital information complements the use of books and magazines. A "health centre" replaces the old sick bay.
This new MLC School environment reflects corresponding developments in commercial office design where an emphasis on "feeling good" is considered fundamental to intellectual clarity, stimulation and productivity.
The learning studios and group meeting rooms are defined by mobile furniture and operable sliding walls. The walls are glass screens which allow acoustic isolation with children working in teams on group projects. Various configurations of learning spaces can be achieved by rearrangement of furnishings and sliding walls. As an alternative to "group" work, children will also be encouraged to work individually at desks, on couches, bongos or perhaps lying on one of the “magic carpets” or outside under a tree with a lap top.
Lippmann Partnership, architects of the new school, have completed other multi-award winning facilities for the MLC School. In 2004 the MLC School Aquatic Centre was awarded a Royal Australian Institute of Architects Award for Public Buildings and the Property Council of NSW awarded it the Rider Hunt Award as the most cost-effective building in NSW. Apart from its relatively low construction cost, it continues to offer exemplary swimming facilities to children who attend the school as well as the broader outside community. Not only has the facility proven to be a remarkably valuable school and community resource but is also environmentally sustainable.
Like the Aquatic Centre, the new Junior School is a low energy, "green" building. It is naturally ventilated and lit throughout the day. A 100,000 litre underground tank allows the school to be reliant on its own water reserves with hot water created from solar heating from an iconic roof structure.
The new school is a breakthrough in design and will support the MLC's new learning program.