Tatty Schools

Both schools I attended as a child are  still standing and and are still in use, though they seemed already pretty old when I attended them   The secondary school is still a  school, though it has been much extended.  The primary school building, with its proud façade and castellated roof, is now used as a workshop for a Formula 3 motor racing team,.  However, the first school at which I taught, almost brand new when I started there in 1959, was pulled down about five years ago.  The school from which I retired from full-time teaching,  built in, I think the mid 60s by a Mr Poulson, who became notorious for substandard buildings , was also demolished a few years ago.

Michael Gove's Education Department seems determined to return to  the tatty strain. New instructions have been issued that all new schools should follow a "template."  They should be 15% smaller than those built by the Labour government,  have no curves, smaller dinning rooms and assembly halls and narrower corridors.  Ceilings should be left as bare concrete.

We shall not restore respect for education until we allocate a bit of dignity to the places in which it takes place.  The public (ie private) schools, with their fine buildings, attractive chapels with fine organs, dignified assembly halls and wide sweeping corridors (all experienced deputy heads know that corridors are where much of the trouble starts) are well aware of this..

Once again the government is showing contempt for public provision, and for we plebs who rely on it.