sensum minds #2 - Site feasibility: The groundwork for growth
Sensum Minds Education Series - Part 2
The foundation of a successful early childhood education project lies in meticulous site feasibility and selection. This stage involves evaluating factors such as location, accessibility, and environmental considerations. A thorough site assessment ensures that the chosen location supports the community's long-term needs and provides children a safe and nurturing environment.
Some of the key areas that schools and project teams need to consider when it comes to siting and location suitability include:
Safety and Convenience during drop-off and pick-up are the most common concerns for stakeholders. These concerns include the danger of moving vehicles, street congestion, and the impact on neighbours.
Visibility and accessibility are paramount for both parents and educators alike—open, flat terrain with close proximity of the facility entry to the drop-off/pick-up location.
Car parking is often challenging when attending school, making it even more difficult for when dropping off younger children.
When inspecting sites, we seek spaces that will offer the best outcomes. During our recent school site inspections, Sensum have focused on features such as street frontage, vehicle and pedestrian access, orientation, and the geography of the landscape.
When not a standalone facility, the building's layout must integrate into the existing environment. This should include natural light, shade in the summer months, a line of sight within the kindergarten, exceptional play spaces, and visibility into the adjoining school.
Part of the investigation needs to ensure any existing adjacent school environment benefits from the expansion. Always wanting to ensure the school’s future development is part of the consultation process; inserting a Kinder should complement the overall offering.
Kindergarten facilities can utilise available land in parcels already owned by the various school departments. Sourcing land in premium locations that offers that transitional opportunity to the next educational milestone is available. State Governments, together with the educational sector have developed a model that understands this and are acting on it. They are taking stock of what is already in their portfolio, and responding.
Sensum can assist you with extensive site feasibility studies, reporting on the opportunities, challenges, and benefits within existing school environments. Whilst taking the short-term demand and mapping data into consideration, we very much take a longer-term view on opportunities for expansion, refurbishment and rationalisation that will leverage increased capacity and minimise the impact on the school's operations and open space.
If you would like to know more about navigating site feasibilities and considering options, get in touch with one of our Education Team Leaders.