Nailsea School tour

THE new £32 million Nailsea School definitely has the ‘wow factor’ say its pupils and staff.

Finished four months ahead of schedule and with money left in the budget to pay for a £350,000 all-weather pitch it is no wonder the 1,300 pupils and 122 teaching and ancillary staff are excited.

The eco-friendly school opened its doors for the first time at the start of the September term.

Head teacher David New said Year 13 were speechless when they arrived for their induction that all they could articulate was the sounds of ‘Ahs’ and ‘Oos’.

The radical design has re-invented the wheel in a series of sweeping curved corridors dotted with comfortable learning and ‘time out’ spaces all complement by angled classrooms with glass walls.

As an aid to navigation inside the vast Tardis of a building every section is colour-coded so children and staff don’t get lost although the difference between the blue and green individual lockers is proving a dilemma for some boys.

The young people are amazed at the futuristic curves, hi-tech communications and two-storey high ceilings off an open atrium from which the arterial routes led into the heart of the new school – in a place of learning with carpets and comfy armchairs.

Other suitably impressed youngsters - most dressed in the smart new black uniform with white shirts and ties - described the new building as a spaceship or cruise liner but one small pupil on her first day told Mr New it made her feel ‘like a millionaire’.

Some of the 21st century ideas look as if they have been borrowed from a five star hotel - the open plan unisex loos with water fountain and the computerised swipe cards for registration.

The inspiration for the glazed wall-of-learning came from the head teacher who has set a goal of raising Nailsea School from a good school to an outstanding one in the next few years.

Builders Carillion sponsored the outside courtyard which was designed by pupils.

Natural light, solar heating, rainwater for loo flushing and bio-fuel boilers awarded the building top marks in its environmental assessment.

Mr New said: “What we wanted to do was create spaces that enhanced learning and to make pupils attitudes to learning very positive.”

“All the indications from week one in the new building is we are achieving this.

“Nailsea School has always been a good school, behaviour has always been good, but it has just shifted to another level.

“Since the move students are far more independent in terms of their learning which you can see the pupils in the study areas on computers not directly supervised by staff but viewed through the glass walls of the classroom – they are just working and enthused by what they are doing.

”The new school does what it was designed to do, it makes students feel as if they are all grown-up and therefore they behave in a more mature manner.

“If this school doesn’t raise results to more than 80 per cent of 5* A-C grades at GCSE within a couple of years nothing will.”

The new building boasts a state-of-the-art auditorium with seating for 350 which electronically stacks away in minutes, two smaller lecture theatres, sport halls,  dance studio with ballet bar and sprung floor, separate science labs for theory and practise – in fact every mod con every school in Britain would aspire to and more.

Head of music Lynda Perkins became a new girl at the start of the September term having previous worked at Gordano School for 16 years.

She said: “My music room is the most lovely room I have ever taught in and I have never taught in a sound-proofed room before.”

The official opening is on Monday, October 5 but builders will be on site until March 2010.

This is when the hoardings shielding it from Mizzymead Road will come down and another more grand opening is planned – fingers crossed - by a member of the Royal family.

Originally built as a grammar school by Somerset County Council in 1959 its deterioration over its 50 year history has been witnessed by a succession of parents, pupils and staff.

Memories of shared books and science apparatus, rotten windows, peeling paint, porous flat roofs, leaking swimming pool and a sports hall that blew away in the night are all condemned to the history books along with old-fashioned ideas and out-of-date concepts.

Cookery classes which have run the full gambit of names and titles like domestic science and food technology are replaced with a catering faculty which has a fully functional professional kitchen.

And if tomorrow is orange then you know you are timetabled to be in the technical department, with yellow being media/creative, dark green for maths and science and blue for health – this is where you find the first aid room and PE areas.

Community use and involvement is also well catered for – this is not a term time 8.30am to 3.30pm weekdays only facility.

Orca the after-school club has a designated area in the ‘vending’ machine café and Nailsea Musicals has already booked the drama theatre - which has blackout facilities to allow it to be converted to a cinema - for its April production.

School presidents Will Dowling, aged 17, and Rosie Steel, 18, have been helping to show visitors around.

Will is studying chemistry, biology and maths at A-level and Rosie is talking physical education, psychology and fine art. Both are part of the Oxbridge class which has been set up this year.

In mid-October after the open evenings for prospective pupils existing students will be able to give conducted tours to their parents.

Despite the upheaval of working around a building site during the past year the school still managed to improve its exam results this year which is an impressive achievement.

Mr New said they threw away the old building regulations which dictated the number and size of classrooms and dining halls.

He said: “We started with the first principles of what would a learning environment be like if it was geared around students learning and high outcomes and we worked from that beginning.

“So having now ended up with a building where there are some things in it which are radically different from the 1998 building bulletin which says what a school should have and how many.

“Change is always difficult and especially when you are saying some of the traditional things you have done we are not doing to do anymore.

“But I would say having moved into the school, having achieved the results we achieved this year of 74 per cent five GCSEs at A-Cs and seeing the impact on the students the staff are 100 per cent behind what we have done.”

Before the school re-opened staff had 3,500 crates to unpack. The unwanted furniture and fittings was donated to a school in Africa or sold.

North Somerset Council executive member for children and young people's services Jeremy Blatchford said: “I don’t think the community has yet realised what they have got.

“I think it will make a huge change to the whole of Nailsea and I think it will raise the standards from a good school to an outstanding school.

“It is very interesting to watch the way the students walk, the way they conduct themselves, it is completely different. It is far more like a university than a secondary school.”

“Looking at it holistically what you have is very good sports facilities – or will have when they are finished - very good music facilities and you have very good teaching particularly in science, and this country needs scientists and engineers and they are here.”

Rebuilding Nailsea School was the largest building project ever undertaken by North Somerset Council with funds released from the Department for Children, Schools and Families as part of the Government’s Building Schools For The Future  programme.

The next secondary and special schools to be rebuilt in North Somerset include Wyvern in Weston, Churchill, St Katherines at Pill and apart from its science block Clevedon.

Ravenswood is due to move from Nailsea to the Clevedon campus.

Broadoak is to be extended, Backwell and Gordano improvements to be completed and major overhauls are scheduled at Worle and Priory.

Mr Blatchford added: “We are just weating for the government to release further funds – the buildings are ready and waiting.”