Thomas Deacon School

I should have known. The Thomas Deacon School, the one being built with no playgrounds (and with the absurd number of 2,200 pupils) was designed by someone who has form:

Thomas Deacon, designed by the renowned architect
Lord Foster, is replacing three schools in Peterborough. When it opens
in September it will be one of the country’s biggest city academies.
Academies are state schools which are independent of local authority
control and sponsored by private firms.

Prospective
pupils and their parents only learned at a meeting last week that
although the school will feature such innovations as a "wetland
eco-pool", it will not have a traditional outdoor area where children
could play games or run around.

Has the man ever built anything that works on a human scale? Museums, factories and offices are entirely different from schools…I just find it absolutely fascinating that groupthink could progress so far.

Any random parent could tell you that children, especially boys, need to run around and let off steam. How could such a monstrosity ever be built at all? And as Mr. Chalk says, what’s this with a school so large that it will be impossible for any teacher to actually know who the pupils are?

What, schools are just factories for learning? We should have 10,000 placers? Worked so well when homes were just factories fo living, didn’t it?

Dr Alan McMurdo, the principal of the academy, said:
"Research has shown that if children concentrate on lessons throughout
the day, then their work improves.

"We are not intending to have any play time. Pupils won’t need to let off steam because they will not be bored."

What a complete cock!

12 responses

  1. I think Thames Valley University demolished its library some years back and built a Foster designed ‘Learning Resource Centre’. Meaning they got rid of nearly all the books and replaced them with the internet. Unfortunately the glass structure let in so much light that the screens were unreadable.
    I wish the staff and pupils of the Thomas Deacon School well.

  2. Plenty of space to run around, though.
    This is from the academy’s website; “The Academy will have a new all weather pitch for hockey and football and the existing tennis and netball courts will be resurfaced. There will also be 4 grass rugby and 4 grass cricket pitches.”

  3. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    A school day from 8 to 6 does sound like torture – I found 9 to 4 pretty long. On the other hand I expect it will be quite a success as it’s going to have money and attention spent on it.

  4. Kay Tie Avatar
    Kay Tie

    8 to 6 with no play time. 50 hours a week. Maybe someone should sic the HSE on to them.

  5. Erasmus Avatar
    Erasmus

    Sounds a bit like Experiment House, the ‘progressive’ school in CS Lewis’s The Silver Chair. Still, all ends all right: “In the inquiry all sorts of things about Experiment House came out, and about ten people got expelled. After that, the Head’s friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn’t much good even at that, they got her into Pariliament where she lived happily ever after.”

  6. Forester Avatar
    Forester

    Perhaps they should rename it “Kamino”
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamino

  7. Bob Doney Avatar
    Bob Doney

    I’ve only read three sentences by McMurdo and I’m already bored.

  8. Bob Doney Avatar
    Bob Doney

    … and I look forward to an scholarly article by Mr Worstall in a few years’ time explaining why house prices in Peterborough unaccountably collapsed.

  9. dsquared Avatar
    dsquared

    2,200 pupils is in no way unmanageable. It’s not even uncommon in rural areas. I think there were more like 2,500 pupils in my school.

  10. dd,
    “2,200 pupils is in no way unmanageable.”
    But it sure as shit will be without a playground…
    C

  11. I think there were more like 2,500 pupils in my school.
    Which school was that?

  12. My school had around 1500, and that didn’t feel large at all. The teachers certainly knew who all the troublemakers were (and in Doncaster, that’s a good proportion of the pupils!). Increasing this number by 50% doesn’t sound like so big of a jump.

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