NuVu Innovation School to ‘resolve huge tension in education’

“The education system hasn’t changed in more than 40 years, but the world has,” said David Miller, director of the recently opened NuVu Innovation School.

NuVu Innovation School is a partnership between the Glasgow independent school Kelvinside Academy and Boston innovation school NuVu.

It has been designed around “creativity, innovation and enterprise”. Instead of following a teacher at the front of a classroom, pupils learn by doing, utilising 3D modelling software, 3D printers and laser cutters, learning in open-plan studios.

Miller continued: “I believe the new Innovation School will resolve a huge tension in education; everyone knows the model has to change but until now, there’s been no viable alternative.

“We believe this powerful learning model could and should become mainstream and we hope the Innovation School will serve as a case study for government and policymakers of what can be achieved.”

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Balfour Beatty built the £2.5m innovation institution and has partnered with the school to work with pupils.

“The design, technical and meta-skills being developed and enhanced in the Innovation School – together with an agile mindset – are exactly what a range of Scottish businesses and academics are telling us they need,” said Miller.

The school hopes to present to the Scottish government an example of what a new national curriculum around digital skills could look like.

Miller said: “The current system intensifies the idea that people leave school as a success or a failure, and for some, it can take many years to recover from this binary view of the world. There’s no specific target or outcome; the NuVu model empowers children and frees them from the depressing constraints of assessment.”

Talks are under way to open it to pupils at local schools.