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.
Architects in the 1960s qnd 1970s built schools with planned obsolescence - they were only designed to last 50 years.Hence the huge costs of repair now. Even the smallest and most poorly endowed independent schools have to spend money on 'plant' or they would not attract customers.
ReplyDeleteModern 'economies' are simply short term insults to state pupils.