CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) — A ribbon cutting will be held Thursday at the new Garden City School in Cranston.

The new school has been designed to foster a much more interactive learning environment.

Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse told 12 News the bright, colorful school is part of the district’s push toward 21st-century learning.

There won’t be any classrooms, but instead, there will be what the school is calling learning commons.

“Instead of having a student sitting at a desk for five or six hours, in rows, being talked at, this is a whole different approach where it’s really a collaborative approach between students and teachers and student to student,” Nota-Masse said.

All five learning spaces inside the school will house roughly 100 students and between eight to 10 teachers.

Students had a direct hand in the design of the school.

“Students when they’re comfortable, they pay attention, they learn better. They don’t have to be sitting in a hard chair at a hard desk to learn and we have found that allowing students to choose where they are sitting, and how they are sitting, has decreased the number of behavioral issues we have because they’re comfortable and they are choosing their best place to learn,” Nota-Masse said.

The ribbon cutting will be private, but a public open house will be held at the school on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The new Gladstone Elementary School — which is expected to open in two years — will be built in the same style.