Hazelwood School is an independent coeducational school set amongst 25 acres of glorious woodlands on the Surrey and Kent border. When the school approached TaskSpace with the radical idea of transforming two outdated art rooms into a cutting-edge innovations suite called the B.O.X, our team was delighted.  Not only did this project give us the chance to design an inspiring, contemporary space, but also fill it with the very latest educational technology. As design briefs come, this one was a dream.

The Innovations Suite at Hazelwood was being paid for through very generous donations. As such, the pressure was on to create a space that would not only make the most of such a kind, financial gesture but also make a real difference to the education of the children that attend the school.

The decision was made to knock both of the old rooms through, to make one, much larger space. In order to create specific learning areas within such a large room, without cluttering the space, the TaskSpace design team used bespoke mood lighting to define the different learning zones. The result is a room with a kaleidoscopic energy that engages students from the second they enter the room.

The TaskSpace design team also guided the school on the interactive and technological innovations to be included within the B.O.X. innovations suite. The final design includes a number of cutting-edge, educational technologies and disciplines, including virtual reality, a Lego construction wall, several interactive floor and wall projections, plus a robotics study area.

Hazelwood School is the only school in the UK to give their students access to interactive Google Jamboards. Google Jamboards allow pupils to quickly sketch new ideas, whiteboard-style, drop images, add notes and pull assets directly from the web while collaborating with other students.

Designed as a totally agile learning space, the environment fuses the latest technological advances with the innate ability of all children to be creative. It’s a space in which there are no rules about how to teach or how to learn.  There is no teacher’s desk nor front of class. There is no fixed furniture; everything is mobile.  The innovations room heralds a new way of teaching and learning that is expansive, endless and full of investigative possibility.

The environment offers pupils the opportunity to develop high order creative thinking and ingenuity, that of which technology will not be capable of, whilst having access to high-end technology to enhance their digital literacy.

Our Innovations Space has caught the attention of those in the worlds of Senior School Education and Technology.  All are eager to follow our progress and to share our experiences.  As a result, we are to become a Google Ambassador in Education, the only one in the whole of the independent schools sector.  Such is their belief, and excitement in what we are doing.