If things have looked quiet on the FNI website, you’ll be pleased to know that this is because we’ve all been incredibly busy helping great learning communities to emerge or become better in new places all over the world. Right now we are very busy in the Arctic Circle; Saskatchewan, Canada; Melbourne Australia; Malaysia; the United Kingdom, Kazakhstan and Florida.

EFEI news
We are anticipating the launch later this month of GoodSchoolDesign.com, a portal for our new and improved Educational Facilities Effectiveness Instrument (EFEI). The new interface is extremely user-friendly and automates the process of recording and presenting evaluations, including photographs! You can go to GoodSchoolDesign.com now to take a peek at the portal and find more about EFEI.

Publications
In February, we were published in the Australian Education Union’s Victorian journal, Professional Voice, and in March had an article in Voices in Urban Education — published by Brown University’s Anneberg Institute for School Reform.

We were also invited to contribute an introduction to the School Libraries Association of Victoria’s new publication, Rethink! — you can learn more about it and find an order form here.

FNI, with local partner architect Ryan Companies has been recognized with a Citation award in the AIA 2008 Educational Facility Design Awards for the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School/Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center. The awards are sponsored by the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on Architecture for Education. The awards will be presented at the 2008 School Building Expo in Illinois.

The Cristo Rey Jesuit High School & Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center has been awarded a citation by the 2008 Architectural Jury of the American Association of School Administrators, American Institute of Architects, and Council of Educational Facility Planners International.

Congratulations are in order for FNI founding Principal Randall Fielding, who on October 9 was named 2007 International Planner of the Year by the Council of Educational Facility Planners, the peak international organization for school planning.

After receiving his award, Randy was also given great feedback on his acceptance speech, which is copied here:

“Thank you all for serving as my mentors. I love CEFPI, because you have shared hundreds of great ideas with me and allowed me to share them with others in 23 countries around the world.

I’m going to continue to need your group genius with the projects ahead.

Ten days ago I spent the week in Saskatchewan, in a school district that has been described by the Canadian press as the worst neighborhood in Canada. In a primarily First Nations community, the graduation rate is under 5%. The neighborhood is characterized by boarded up houses, empty needles, and child prostitutes.

We began a community engagement process with student workshops, sharing different kinds of music, and learning about students’ hopes and fears. After three days of workshops with kids, health care providers, the school board, police department, community elders, and social services, a student named Jesse said to me, “Will you come back to us?”

It was a poignant moment. We realized that Jesse was speaking for a whole community of children that had been abandoned.

The next day, I received an urgent communication from one of the school leaders: “We have to bring you back! We’ve built up their hopes, and it’s time to deliver.”

I promise you that I will be back, and that I will continue to leverage all of your great ideas at CEFPI to transform Jesse’s neighborhood into a center for life long learning, where each student can realize their own dreams.”

Microsoft Corporation has invited Fielding Nair International to be a part of their Innovative Schools Program Conference in Oulu, Finland on November 2nd and 3rd 2007. This conference will bring 12 innovative schools from 12 countries to share ideas about implementing educational transformation. FNI was selected by Microsoft to conduct a workshop that shares our experience in this area and to advise the Innovative Schools as they progress on their journeys.

Microsoft consultants Mary Meucci and Nancy Vye with Prakash Nair observe impromptu youth performance at Innovative Cristo Rey School and Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center in Minneapolis. Photo: Randall Fielding Sept. 18, 2007.

Here is an excerpt from the Microsoft Press release announcing the program: 31 January 2007: Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates today announced a significant worldwide expansion of the company’s Innovative Schools programme as part of his keynote address at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum (GLF) Europe. Tailored to meet local community needs, the Innovative Schools programme will be rolled out in the following 12 locations: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, SAR Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico, Qatar, Sweden and the UK.

“Education is key to economic development and competitiveness,” Gates said before the event. “It’s key to fostering the social and economic conditions needed for entrepreneurs to succeed, for workers to prosper in the knowledge economy and for everyone to realise their full potential. Microsoft is committed to helping strengthen education by working in partnership with educators, policymakers and students around the world.”

On October 11, 2007, Jeff Lackney presented his findings regarding the “Role of School Design in Obesity Prevention” at an invited conference entitled Beyond Individual Behavior: Multidimensional Research in Obesity Linking Biology to Society organized by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Washington, D.C. His findings will appear in the journal Obesity this Fall.

Abstract: Spatial features of obesogenic environments studied on a broad, community level have been associated with childhood overweight and obesity, but little research has focused on the effects of the design of micro spaces such as schools on individual health behaviors. This presentation aimed to generate thinking and research on the link between school space and architecture and obesity prevention by reviewing and synthesizing available literature in architecture, environmental psychology, and obesity research, in an effort to propose promising ideas for school space design and redesign. Design strategies aimed to promote physical activity and healthy eating are proposed, with particular emphasis on the design of cafeterias, activity spaces, connectivity with the larger community, and student health centers. Concluding remarks include intervention logistics, the merits of and barriers to school redesign, the important role of students in design efforts, and future research directions.

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School has welcomed its first cohort of students, and will be officially opened, along with the Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center on October 4 by General Colin Powell (Ret.)

Below: Students at work in one of Cristo Rey’s Commons

Amid much fanfare, Scotch Oakburn College’s new Health and Physical Education Centre was opened on August 10. SOC continues to undergo a transformation: in March the new Robert Dean Centre opened, and work is underway on a new Middle School comprising three Small Learning Communities.

Below: Year 5 students showcasing the new facilities (and their own incredible acrobatics!) in front of the whole school community

Wednesday September 19 was a momentous occasion in the Cayman Islands: groundbreakings for each of the three new high schools were held. Building will commence in the next few weeks.

Below: Snapshots of the three Groundbreaking ceremonies.

See our Resumes page for information about Prof. Stephen Heppell, Dr. Jon Wiles, Dr. Arthur Shapiro, Bruce Dixon, Michelle Swanson, Theron Cosgrave, Eeva Reeder, John Sole, and Michele Tillier Wiles all of whom have come on board recently.