We visited the big school in town last night for the first time with our eldest daughterthe school she will be moving up to next September. It’s funny really; although I have travelled past countless times, I’ve never been inside the school gates.
Huge.
That is the only word that comes to mind. Compared to the school I went towhich I thought was bigthis school is gigantic. The headmistress was giving rolling presentations to parents during the evening, and quickly ran through some stats; Over 1,200 pupils at the school 95 members of staff 21 governorsFollowing the presentations, those who were interested could go on walking tours of the school, led in small groups by students. Our student was a pretty elvish looking girl who’s character had just jumped from the pages of Peter Pan.
My overriding impressions of what we saw as we wandered between buildings and classrooms werescale, and money. The art department, for example, is flanked with iMacs everywhere you look. The Media Studies department is again flanked with Macbooks everywhere you look. The Math department is replete with laptops for every child, and Business Studies may well have been a Dell trade show.
I guess it all makes sensethe schooling of our children thus far has been focussed on the foundations of their education; motor skills, reading, writing, basic arithmetic, and comprehension. Once they move through to this school, it will all be about the more abstract areas; learning about a subject, research, analysis, and so on.
I left incrediblyimpressed, and judging by our eldest’s reaction to the science department, we may have a Physicist on our hands.
She better start trying harder with her math homework