| |
 |
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT PLANS
Building and Development Masterplan:
an update
Accommodation has long been an issue at Shottery. The Manor is a
lovely old building, but much of it is not suitable for teaching,
and certainly not for full-size classes. The three flat-roofed buildings
date from the school’s opening in the 1950s, and some areas
of the school, including the three original science laboratories,
have not been refurbished since then. Spaces like the hall and dining
room were planned with rather smaller numbers of girls in mind,
as were the number of classrooms. The provision of three temporary
classrooms showed that the County recognised the school’s
need for more space some years ago – but they have proved
to be far from temporary and no longer provide satisfactory accommodation.
Two successive Ofsted reports have identified accommodation as an
issue – the March 2006 report, for instance, singling out
the need for improved study accommodation for the sixth form, for
indoor sports facilities and for general classrooms; and the Local
Authority’s Asset Management Plan has also recognised that
we have a Basic Need for four more classrooms, a science laboratory,
and a sports hall, as well as needing more space for art, science,
private study and other learning resources.
The Governors and I (writes the Head) have drawn up a Masterplan
which provides a solution to these needs. It involves building a
new science laboratory on top of the DT Workshop and demolishing
the three temporary classrooms to build in that part of the site
a sixth-form centre incorporating seven classrooms (three replacing
the huts), and a half-size sports hall. This new accommodation would
provide much-needed extra study and library space for the sixth
form as well as the extra classrooms, and knock-on effects of the
new build, including the sports hall and new changing rooms at the
back of the Hall, would benefit the Hall and Dining Room as well
as many other areas of the school. The Masterplan has now been professionally
costed, and the whole project, which is likely to cost in the region
of £2m to £3m, could be phased in over a couple of years.
The Plan has been presented to the Local Authority, and we have
applied for the necessary capital funding – which is outside
our normal annual budget – to enable building to start. We
are currently at the stage of lobbying for that funding.
The developments that have taken place in recent years have been
largely the result of our own efforts: the Stratford Language Centre
(SLC), for instance, being funded directly from the DfES as part
of becoming a Language College once we’d raised the initial
£50,000; and the first 55% of the capital for the Stratford
Academy of Music (SAM) being raised through grants sought out by
senior staff and our own fund-raising (eg through FOS) before the
remaining 45% could be triggered from the County. From within our
own budget this year, we are aiming to refurbish the toilets in
the practical building and the Manor.
I would dearly like to have some good news for you soon. We need
these developments for the future of the school. We believe that
it is important to work through the official channels for such an
important project for a state-funded school, and I can assure parents
that we are acting upon every opportunity for pressing the funding
agencies for support. In anticipation of the fact that we are likely
to need to supplement any grants we get by fund-raising, however,
anybody willing to be involved in such an effort is invited to contact
the Chair of the Marketing and Development Committee, Bill Joss,
via the School Office. The fund-raising efforts of FOS and SAL are
already focused on projects that support these developments: FOS
have targeted the refurbishment of the existing science labs, and
SAL have targeted the extension of the current tennis/netball courts
to provide further courts. Your daughters’ education over
the next few years could be greatly enhanced by these developments:
let’s work together for them!
top of page
|
 |
 |
|