Building development at St Ives

Two years ago, we set ourselves the task of invigorating St Ives’ Year 1 and 2 learning spaces. Historical buildings that had fostered hundreds of clever thinkers over many years, needed a good shake-up. We began with an architectural outline of how we would use the spaces, including what was important to our boys as learners and how we wanted to teach.

The learning experience in our Preschool embraces the child-centred early educational Reggio Emilia approach designed by Loris Malaguzzi. It hinges on the belief that children are powerful and capable individuals, with the ability and desire to construct their own knowledge. We apply the essence of those guiding principles to our older learners and the building needed to reflect this inherent philosophy.

We hoped to create enticing areas to nurture boys when thinking about art, science, music, and creative innovation; to inspire and guide them to learn, question, reflect, make connections and explore complexity beyond standards and academic outcomes.

Recognising that at the very core of creativity is our desire to express ourselves, we envisaged environments that would help us to inspire and support creative thinking and invention.