Schools are a vital part of any healthy and thriving community. They provide an important civic place for meeting and exchange and often operate as social as well as educational hubs, not just for parents and students, but for the wider community through the sharing of sports grounds and other facilities.

High quality, well designed schools create a sense of pride, identity and ownership for the communities they serve. They also help deliver better educational results.

There is growing appreciation of the significant role that good design can play in education, with increasing evidence that student learning outcomes are closely related to the quality of the environment in which they learn.

Factors such as air quality, ventilation, natural lighting, thermal comfort and acoustic performance have been shown to have a profound impact on teacher wellbeing and student attentiveness, attendance and overall performance.

There is also an increasing awareness of the need for schools to prepare students for the rapidly changing global economy they will inhabit. Skills such as creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking are now becoming as valued as the more traditional literacies.

It is essential that our school facilities enable the learning and teaching outcomes required of a modern world. It is also vital that they are designed and constructed to reflect the values and aspirations of the local communities for which they perform such an important civic role.

This document is a design guide for new school development and upgrades in NSW and accompanies the State Environmental Planning Policy (Educational Establishments and Child Care Facilities) 2017 (Education SEPP).