Located 80km south of Adelaide on the Fleurieu Peninsula, Victor Harbor High School is the first state high school to comprehensively employ principles of personalised learning into the design of its senior school campus. The formality of the traditional classroom is replaced with a more open, socially interactive, wireless technology environment comprising of flexible spaces, student commons, learning streets, courtyards and piazzas.

Project Name: Victor Harbor Senior High School
Studio Name: Hames Sharley
Project size: 2700
Project Budget: $6200000
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Photography: Hames Sharley

Victor Harbor Senior High School by Hames Sharley - Sheet1
Garden View ©Hames Sharley

The learning environment will be one where students and teachers can socialise, exchange thoughts and ideas and acquire information either sitting at a desk, lounging on a sofa, on the carpet or on a bench under a tree.

Victor Harbor Senior High School by Hames Sharley - Sheet2
Lab ©Hames Sharley

As the social and economic benefits of ensuring that no student is left behind become obvious, the teacher’s classroom is giving way to an information ubiquitous, multi-faceted learning environment tuned to address the needs of each individual student. The Information Revolution and student-centred approach to learning are replacing the traditional ‘Henry Ford production-line’ method of teaching.

Victor Harbor Senior High School by Hames Sharley - Sheet3
Corridor ©Hames Sharley

The driver of this new approach is a flexible, open learning philosophy where a more collaborative environment encourages cross communication between students and teachers alike. Technology forms a key part of this approach, with teaching methods shifting from paper-based learning to computers, wireless networks and digital IT information transfer.

Author

Mansi Agrawal is a part of the in-house team at Re-thinking The Future and Eduwik. An enthusiastic reader at heart, she has always found joy in exploring new ideas through research and expressing them through writing. As a multi-tasker, she gets multiple jobs done without compromising their quality. She is amongst those people whom you can rely on for any task be it personal or professional.