Abstract
As a distinctive and relatively new school form, academies and vocational schools are an attempt to bring progressive change to the secondary school traditions within the state sector. The Academy School programme, which is particular to the UK, takes elements of the semi-privately run Charter School movement in the USA and mixes them with a more vocational curriculum form, which is relatively common in Europe. In this category secondary schools in mainland Europe, which illustrate a progressive or radically different approach to the traditional comprehensive educational umbrella, are also included; to the extent that they are specialist schools, however the terminology should not be confused with special schools for students with more extreme educational difficulties. Definitions are not strictly consistent across national boundaries, however we have grouped those institutions together, which reflect a culture of change within this final category.
The secondary school sector is notoriously conservative and resistant to change even where it is seen to be failing. What is clear about this section of case studies is the extent to which architecture is used to make grand statements about the significance of a specialist educational institution, largely state funded, yet outside the mainstream secondary school academic tradition. Progressive thinking acts as a catalyst to new and innovative practice, with the emphasis on architecture as well as education to promote new ways of thinking in the secondary school sector.
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© 2007 Birkhäuser Verlag AG
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(2007). Academies and Vocational Schools. In: A Design Manual Schools and Kindergartens. Design Manuals. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7643-8329-9_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7643-8329-9_16
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser Basel
Print ISBN: 978-3-7643-7053-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-7643-8329-9
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