Our conversation with Dr. Anne Knock dives straight into the messy, exciting work of redesigning schools for the future.

Across the episode we unpack how leaders can think more like complexity strategists; reading the whole system rather than just reacting to individual problems, and how three levers; learner experience, professional culture and physical space, can work together rather than in silos. We talk about what it really looks like when teachers become designers of learning, not just deliverers of content, and how small changes to the environment or timetable can create huge shifts in student engagement.

Anne shares stories from her international study tours, including impactful moments on trains and in corridors where educators debriefed what they had seen and began to reimagine what might be possible back in their own contexts. We reflect on the importance of going beyond visually pleasing spaces, to ask how the environment changes the conversations, relationships and learning in the room.

Throughout the episode, Anne shares provocations about the future education workforce, the kinds of spaces that invite belonging, and the courage it takes to disrupt long held assumptions about how school should work. It is an invitation to look closely at the everyday spaces of classrooms, staffrooms and schools, and to consider what might be shifted or reimagined. Our discussion explores the value of experimenting with new approaches and asked how we might design environments where both students and adults genuinely want to be.

Anne’s new book School by Design: A Field Guide to Transforming Learning, Culture and Space, is out now.

Credits:

Podcast theme music composed by Julian Ferraretto

Logo Design by Meredith Baker

Photography by Carmen Roberts