‘In‐between’ spaces in postwar primary schools: a micro‐study of a ‘welfare room’ (1977–1993)

Abstract

What narratives may a micro‐study within a school reveal about past lives, roles and design? What traces may be contained within a single room? This paper focuses on an oral history of a ‘welfare room’ in a postwar Infants school as told by a welfare assistant. The school is an early example of school designed by Mary (Crowley) Medd opened in 1949. Mary, together with David Medd, was to play a significant role in postwar school design through their work at a local authority level, particularly in Hertfordshire and more widely at a national and international level through the Ministry of Education Architects and Building Development Group (1949–1972). This study, part of a wider investigation of three of the Medds’ postwar schools, reveals three features of architectural intention lived out in the habitation of the space. There is an attention to the ‘in‐between’ as part of a reconfiguring of learning spaces, to comfort and care linked to design, which promotes growth, and to craftsmanship.

Keywords:

• school design
• school architects
• child welfare
• material culture

Notes

¹Martin Lawn, ‘A Pedagogy for the Public: The Place of Objects, Observation, Mechanical Production and Cupboards’, in Materialities of Schooling: Design, Technologies, Objects, Routine, ed. Martin Lawn and Ian Grosvenor (Oxford: Symposium Books, 2005), 145.

²See for example Kate Rousmaniere, City Teachers. Teaching and School Reform in Historical Perspective (New York: Teachers College Press 1997); Lawn and Grosvenor, Materialities of Schooling; Catherine Burke, ‘Hands–on History: Towards a Critique of the “Everyday”’, History of Education 30, no. 2 (2001): 191–201.

³Marc Armitage, ‘The Influence of School Architecture and Design on Outdoor Play Experience within the Primary School’, Paedagogica Historica 41 (2005): 535–53.

⁴See for example Antonio Viñao, ‘The School Heads’ Office as Territory and Place: Location and Physical Layout in the First Spanish Graded Schools’, in Lawn and Grosvenor, op. cit.

⁷Catherine Burke and Ian Grosvenor, School (London: Reaktion Books, 2008), 133.

⁵See for example Malcolm Seaborne and Roy Lowe, The English School: Its Architecture and Organization, Vol. 2 1870–1970 (London: Routledge & Paul Kegan, 1971); Stuart Maclure, Educational Development and School Building: Aspects of Public Policy 1945–1973 (London: Longman, 1984); Andrew Saint, Towards a Social Architecture: The Role of School Building in Post‐war England (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987).

⁶David Medd quoted by Catherine Burke in ‘About Looking: Vision, Transformation, and the Education of the Eye in Discourses of School Renewal Past and Present’, British Education Research Journal 36 (2010): 74.

¹³Medd, A Right to be Children, 27.

⁸Burke, ‘About Looking’, 68.

⁹Department of Education and Science (DES), Eveline Lowe Primary School London. Building Bulletin 36 (London: HMSO, 1966).

¹⁰DES, Eveline Lowe Primary School, 43.

¹¹Mary Medd, A Right to be Children: Designing for the Under‐fives (London: RIBA Publications for the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, 1976).

¹²Medd, A Right to be Children, 21, Plate 8.

¹⁴Burke, ‘About Looking’, 67.

¹⁵DES, Eveline Lowe Primary School; Burke, ‘About Looking’, 77.

¹⁶Saint, Towards a Social Architecture, 156, 192.

¹⁸Ibid., 5.

¹⁷HMI, Non‐teaching Staff in Schools: A Review (London: HMSO, 1992).

¹⁹Peter Mortimore, Managing Associate Staff: Innovation in Primary and Secondary Schools (London: Paul Chapman, 1993).

²⁰Terence Clayton, ‘Domestic Helper to Assistant Teacher – The Changing Role of the British Classroom Assistant’, European Journal of Special Needs Education 8, no. 1 (1993): 32–44.

²²Ibid., 125.

²¹Berry Mayall, Gillian Bendelow, Sandy Barker, Pamela Storey and Marijcke Veltman, Children’s Health in Primary Schools (London: Falmer Press, 1996).

²³Catherine Burke, Alison Clark, Dominic Cullinan, Peter Cunningham, Rachel Sayers and Rob Walker, Principles of Primary School Design: Towards a Common Vocabulary (sponsored by ACE Foundation, Cambridge, 2010).

²⁴See Ministry of Education Architects and Building Branch, Development Projects: Junior School, Amersham. Building Bulletin 16 (London: HMSO, 1958).

²⁵See Ministry of Education Architects and Building Branch, Village Schools. Building Bulletin 3 (London: HMSO, 1961).

²⁶See for example Alison Clark and Peter Moss, Listening to Young Children: The Mosaic Approach (London: National Children’s Bureau, 2001); Alison Clark Transforming Children’s Spaces: Children’s and Adults’ Participation in Designing Learning Environments (London: Routledge, 2010).

²⁷Burke et al., Principles of Primary School Design.

²⁸Interview between Alison Clark and Judy Taylor held at Malvern Way Infants School on May 8, 2009. Recording and transcript held by the author.

²⁹Burke, ‘About Looking’, 77.

³⁰Tuula Gordon, Janet Holland and Elina Lahelma, Making spaces: Citizenship and Difference in Schools (London: Macmillan, 2010).

³¹DES, Eveline Lowe Primary School, 40.

³²Ibid., 40.

³³Mayall et al., Children’s Health, 1.

³⁴See for example Leslie Bash and David Coulby, The Education Reform Act: Competition and Control (London: Cassell, 1989); David Gillborn and Deboroah Youdell, Rationing Education: Policy, Practice, Reform and Equity (London: Routledge, 2000).

³⁵Peter Moss and Pat Petrie, From Children’s Services to Children’s Spaces: Public Policy, Children and Childhood (London: Routledge, 2002).

³⁷Ibid., 114.

³⁶Joan Dean, A Teaching Assistant’s Guide to Primary Education (London: Routledge, 2010).

³⁸Clark Transforming Children’s Spaces, 75–6.