Upon entering the space... Considering the impact of the space between us.

That moment when you first walk through the carpark, the gate, the front office, and across the playground to the classroom, can be a profound experience for all of us, teachers and students alike.

There is a tangible atmosphere; the spirit of the place, that envelopes you and starts to make your emotions ping.

Sometimes that atmosphere is amplified in the classroom, the staffroom, the playground. It can be welcoming, inviting, inclusive. It can be isolating, cold, exclusive.

Your sense of self, of calm, of acceptance is laid bare in that atmosphere - and sometimes it's there everyday after. For weeks, years even.

In considering the learning space, planning for it, can we also consider the atmospheric space between people? The culture of how people allow others to operate within the common space?

There often seem to places in schools where the atmosphere is markedly different. Like walking through an airlock and into different air. There is a sense that here I am allowed, here I can, here I am valued.

After spending many years in many different schools, both as a student, and as a teacher, I would venture to suggest that this space between us is of vital importance to effective learning. To appropriate "The Castle", we're talking about the vibe. That undefinable sense between people that they are welcomed or they are not. Perhaps it's what we used to call hospitality. Or kindness. Being polite.

Can we create space between students and teachers, students and students, teachers and teachers, teachers and executives, parents and teachers, where we feel welcome and at home?

Can we nurture an atosphere around us where we can breathe out, relax and focus?

When the space between us works to build up, encourage, unite and value each one then the other learning spaces work with utmost efficiency.