Councils and contractors need to get pupils more involved in the design process in the next wave of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Partnership for Schools chief executive, Tim Byles, urged all those involved in BSF to make the best use of opportunities being offered by the Sorrell Foundation, which is running workshops to help find what pupils want in their schools. Mr Byles said 19 councils had joined the BSF programme in wave five at the end of 2007. ‘It is clear that new schools in which students have had input to the process – not as designers or architects, but as users of the building – are schools where the student body and staff feel real ownership,' said Mr Byles. ‘But, we want to see more of this. BSF is not something that should be "done" to students, teachers and the local community. It is about them, and so they must be part of the process.' Last month, Kent CC named Land Securities Trillium and Northgate Information Systems as preferred bidders of the first phase of its BSF programme.
