Practical issues to consider
Year 1–8 schools: Are specialist rooms needed?
Most specialists agree that students and teachers need access to specialist dance, drama, and music facilities beyond about year 6. Up to year 6, classes need regular access to alternative spaces that are suitable for dance, drama, and music, but not necessarily designed primarily for any one discipline.
Year 9–13 schools: How to provide facilities suitable for both senior and junior students?
Senior students have a wide range of options and tend to work individually.
- Do you plan to cater primarily for them?
- Will these facilities also be suitable (and available) for the more general programmes at years 9 and 10?
What else will arts facilities be used for?
- Will non-arts classes be timetabled into the specialist arts rooms?
- Do you need spaces for non-curricular activities? (Remember that any other use of a specialist arts space introduces access, storage, and design issues.)
- If the facility is to be used for anything other than dance, drama, or music, how will you ensure security for equipment?
What about performance spaces?
- Is there a suitable space for students to perform to other students and/or parents/whānau?
- If so, do you envisage that space also being used by timetabled dance, drama, or music classes?
- Is the school assembly hall really good enough for dance, drama, or music performances?
- Could it be successfully remodelled?
Will teaching facilities be used for performances?
- Do you have other spaces suitable for small group or solo performances?
- Will the audiences be other students or the public?
You need to consider how far you can go with performances in a classroom before you have to consider night-time use, public access, fire safety, ventilation, and toilets.
What is the largest space needed?
- Do you have (or plan to have) an orchestra, band or large choir?
- Will you be doing large theatre productions?
If your school places a priority on large groups or events, you should have music and/or drama rehearsal rooms that do not need to be set up for each rehearsal. It could be used for some other arts purposes during class time. The school hall is unlikely to be suitable.
(One intermediate school's solution to this need was to erect a large pre-fabricated aluminium garage to accommodate its 40-piece band for rehearsals – at a cost of only $30,000.)
What smaller spaces are needed?
Think about individual practice and ensemble rehearsals, group discussions, breakout groups, and individual study/practice.
- How many smaller rooms are required to fulfil these needs?
- How small should they be?
- Do they all have to be dedicated to one discipline?
Do you have visiting/itinerant teachers?
- How many teachers visit? (For example, itinerant music teachers.)
- Which rooms will they use?
- How will they and their students get their equipment/instruments in and out these rooms?
- Is the number of visitors likely to change significantly in the future?
What work space do the teachers need?
- How many dance, drama, and music teachers are you likely to have in a few years? (Visiting and staff)
- How much storage space does each teacher need?
- Can arts teachers share a work space?
- What would be the benefits and disadvantages of sharing?
- Can you locate the teacher work space/s close to the arts teaching resources?
Ministry guidelines
For information on what is available through the Ministry's 'School Property Guide', see the 'Min Ed policies guidelines' page.