Buildings and Environment

InIn B School, the Head teacher had just taken over a building whose interior décor was dilapidated. The school had been without a permanent Head for a year and a half and had been given notice to improve by Ofsted. Graffiti was common and was not cleaned off regularly. The school had not been freshly painted for a long time, and most rooms, even when there was good display, had a scruffy feel to them. The buildings were only about 30 years old so it was not their age that had let the place down. One of the first things the Head teacher did was to take better care of the environment, to show students that where they worked was an important place to be, and was valued highly. He gave an Art teacher the responsibility to enter the school for any competition that would result in some sort of make over. He took five of the most difficult students in one year group and worked with them to design the decoration for the dining hall. In the end the students were working voluntarily out of school hours to repaint it, when previously it was difficult to keep them in school for a whole lesson at once.The Head teacher overhauled the reception with new carpet and used different students each day as receptionists to welcome visitors. They very rarely abused their position. He gave the Librarian £100 to make over a patch of grass outside the library back door. She soon had a set of library helpers who created a student garden. Within six weeks, graffiti was dramatically reduced, behaviour around the school was much improved, the dining hall was more peaceful, and a greater number of students used the library. B School, the Head teacher had just taken over a building whose interior décor was dilapidated. The school had been without a permanent Head for a year and a half and was in serious weaknesses*. Graffiti was common and was not cleaned off regularly. The school had not been freshly painted for a long time, and most rooms, even when there was good display, had a scruffy feel to them. The buildings were only about 30 years old so it was not their age that had let the place down. One of the first things the Head teacher did was to take better care of the environment, to show students that where they worked was an important  place to be, and was valued highly. He gave an Art teacher the responsibility to enter the school for any competition that would result in some sort of make over. He took five of the most difficult students in one year group and worked with them to design the decoration for the dining hall. In the end the students were working voluntarily out of school hours to repaint it, when previously it was difficult to keep them in school for a whole lesson at once.The Head teacher overhauled the reception with new carpet and used different students each day as receptionists to welcome visitors. They very rarely abused their position. He gave the Librarian £100 to make over a patch of grass outside the library back door. She soon had a set of library helpers who created a student garden. Within six weeks, graffiti was dramatically reduced, behaviour around the school was much improved, the dining hall was more peaceful, and a greater number of students used the library.

Comments are closed.