New School: First Look at GIIS SMART Campus

Safe and secure

To help safeguard the school’s large student body of 3,500, the SMART campus has more than 600 CCTV cameras and biometrics-operated turnstiles gates with facial recognition systems at every entrance. Facial recognition machines outside every classroom will enable 40% faster marking of students’ attendance.

The school also has floor and classroom-level student location mapping, which "allows teachers to know the whereabouts of students at any given time, analyse these movements across the campus, know usage patterns of all the schools’ facilities".

21st-century learning

This large school has been designed to give students a "stress-free and free-thinking learning environment".  Students can use a mobile hotdesking system to book space in Student Innovation Rooms (SIR). There are Learning Commons that combine open classrooms spaces with informal seating, and 47 SMART labs and studios that are equipped for skills-based learning ranging from IT and the visual arts through to ceramics and cooking.

Teaching also takes place in classrooms with partition walls, to allow three or four classes to merge together for collaborative activities; teachers wear microphones in class to ensure “students hear crystal clear sound”.

The school says: “The heart of the school is the classroom and we spent maximum design time in getting the classroom right. Skills-based interactive learning through the expansive 47 skills based studios is the need of the hour. ”

Next page: Digital noticeboards and ID cards!