A Chip off the New Block

If I could wave a magic wand, I’d cast my spell on remaining parts of the school that need to be modernised. One wave and there would be a twelve classroom Science Block. On second thoughts, let’s make that sixteen. No more Science teachers wandering the site like dispossessed tribes, wheeling their shopping trolleys containing their books and equipment. Instead every Science teacher would be in their very own lab- and for the whole week. Is it really too much to ask?

I can still remember when we were arguing the case for a new Science Block in 1994. It looked for a time as if one storey of four labs was all were going to get. The telling argument that got us eight (with two storeys and a posh lift) was when we pointed out how expensive it would be to put on a roof and then have to take it off again at a later date to build an extension when numbers grew. Money was more limited in those days but we still won the argument.

For several years we have been pressing the case. There are just not enough labs and a formula exists to prove it. Every day children and their Science teachers are being short changed. The case is irrefutable. Science is one of the most important subjects we offer. Any spare room has to double up for Science classes- a nightmare for nomads.

The Woodland, for example, an appropriately named creature whose natural habitat is the Amazonian jungle with World challenge or the depths of Dartmoor, rarely has the chance to enjoy its prime territory- a Science lab. Moving faster than a passenger at Paddington station in the rush hour, you can see the Woodland’s jet propelled shopping trolley zooming from Place House to the Maths Block and on to another remote part of the school, lost in the dust.

Another wave of the wand and there’s a new, purpose-built and designed Art Block. Let’s chuck in a couple of new Music rooms too while we’re making wishes. In Art it’s a different problem but equally pressing. They have rooms but they are not fit for purpose. The miracle is that the Art and Photography staff produce results that are in the top league nationally by any measure, year after year. Think what they could do with good facilities and how they deserve them.

If you are a Science or Art teacher at South Dartmoor, it’s a choice between being homeless or living in a slum. What kind of a choice is that?

Of course we’re pleased with all the other investment in recent years. We have some great facilities. But until these two projects are completed, South Dartmoor will be unfinished- rather like those buildings you see in Greece or Cyprus that are half built because of property taxes.

So we’re going to invest about a quarter million pounds of our own money in the photography facilities. Work begins next summer. And it now looks as if there may even be some help with this.

It’s not the new block but it may just be a chip off it!