Guidelines for excellence in school science accommodation

The RSC has found that science teachers are unsatisfied with the design of new science teaching facilities in secondary schools - giving further evidence towards Cabe's recent findings that the £35 billion Government programme Building Schools for the Future will produce only mediocre schools.

This is highly concerning considering that an RSC report published almost two years ago, Improving School Laboratories?, found that where laboratories were being refurbished, only 35% of secondary school science staff had significant involvement in the design process, and in 28% of cases they described the refurbishment as unsatisfactory or poor.

Guidelines for school science laboratories should aid design and construction of new science laboratories in secondary schools. The guidelines, written in consultation with science education advisory board CLEAPSS, state that "Science staff, including technicians, should be consulted at every stage of the design and building process."

Including teachers and technicians in the design process is not only essential to developing excellent teaching facilities for science, but also avoids unnecessary expense in correcting design flaws.