The new East Gloucester/Veterans’ Memorial Elementary school consolidates two distinct neighborhood schools, each with its own unique identity and preferred methods of teaching and learning. Given the merging of both school communities, it was important that educational visioning and planning efforts included a wide range of stakeholders from each school to ensure the building’s design honored each school yet supported opportunities for the blending and alignment of teaching methods and culture throughout the building’s lifetime.
Within grade level neighborhoods, each pair of academic classrooms is divided by a movable acoustical partition that allows individual classrooms to become one shared learning community for interdisciplinary work and/or co-teaching. The ability to change the shape and size of academic rooms supports a variety of learning preferences and teaching methods and allows the building to grow with changing educational demands overtime. Each pair of classrooms also has a small group room accessed from the classrooms and corridor. Having these more intimate yet visible cave-like spaces allows for impromptu classroom expansion for group/project work. Additionally, these spaces can be used for academic interventions so students are supported on-team without having to travel for Special Education services.
The building supports the district’s mission for “…all students to be successful, engaged, life-long learners” by weaving together academic spaces not often paired together. Inside, the design blurs the line between art, sciences, and literacy by positioning the art classroom adjacent to the library/makerspace area. Known as the “Curiosity Commons”, the interdisciplinary media space is where literature, experimentation, making, and artistic expression converge within a collaborative environment.
Educational Vision and Design Features
- Grade level learning communities with flexible academic pairings
- Small group space for breakout and tiered intervention supports
- Flexibility at a variety of scales to support various teaching methods and learning preferences
- A reimagined media space that blurs the line between literacy and the arts
- Learning on display, including final products and works in progress
- A separation of public and private space to maximize school and community use
