Rethinking health centres at Budehaven School

'I want you to shut your eyes and imagine you're standing in a health centre.  What are the sounds and smells? What can you see?'

In 2006, Budehaven purchased a bungalow opposite the school.  They are now planning to turn it into a health centre for the children and community, although 'health centre' almost certainly won't be the final label.  In planning the centre, the school's is going back to basics - so here we are, standing in a semi-circle, eyes prayerfully closed, imagining how we're affected by healthcare spaces.  A picture quickly emerges of powerful smells of disinfectant, scritchy furniture, unwholesome magazines and uniformed staff.  It's pretty clear that none of the people in the room want that - from two cheery eleven year old pupils to a sixty-something school governor. 

So the school has organised a creative day to develop new ideas.  They've invited spatial designer, Phil Wyatt, visual artist, Caroline Cleave and writer Victoria Field to help.   It's clear that the offer to break the normal rules is sincere: as Caroline Cleave says 'in this situation it's probably your wildest idea that's the best one.' 

The school is one of three in Cornwall to create a new healthcentre - the others are Penair and Hayle.  The School has already innovated by getting special 'sports college' status - but using this to emphasise healthy living as well the more conventional approach of encouraging games.  The surrounding town is poorly served by public transport and is in an area that's retained it's beauty and uniqueness through comparative isolation.  But despite the sea and countryside, there are concerns about health and fitness among teenage pupils. 

Designing a health centre

We hear of another school in the programme that has opted for completely white walls with colour projected into the space depending on how it's being used.  We float the idea of custom made furnishings - using prints drawn from children's own drawings and designs.  Bits of tissue paper fly around as we contemplate colour schemes.  We wonder how to accommodate the fact that not all users of the centre will want a pleasing bright pink.

Pupils also explore the ways they want to be listened to in the health centre. They explore the possibility of music and chillout zones so that the centre doesn't just become somewhere for people to go because 'something's wrong'.  Meanwhile adults debate the limits of confidentiality - how can they explain to pupils that their secrets will be kept unless they are in danger?

A wide range of local people bring different perspectives. A truancy officer describes his journey from bunking off school to his job helping children see the worth of staying in education - and also protecting them when things have gone badly wrong at home.  A complementary therapist describes the usefulness of 'touch' therapies in a time when adult physical contact with children is strictly rulebound.  'Teachers can't touch pupils but a healthcare worker can give them, say, a reflexology session - which might be as good a way of de-stressing for children who don't want to talk.' 

It will be some time before the Budehaven school's plans begin to settle, but it's clear that they will be as individual as the town itself - and a fascinating attempt at a really integrated approach to healthy living.