I post relatively rarely on social media these days as time is short, but when I do it’s always interesting to see which posts get the most engagement. One I posted back in September about the Anderson Reading Room in the Old House seemed to strike a chord. The point was simple – that we work better in inspiring surroundings. I had gone in there one Saturday morning before an event for a change of scene to write an assembly. The room was beautifully redesigned over the Summer after conversations with Sixth Form students about their desire for more quiet work spaces.
Roll forward nine months and we have Sixth Form students turning up first thing in the morning in their eagerness to start their working day in the Ideas Hub. I have watched with delight the way in which they use the huge writing walls for History essay plans, Economics supply and demand graphs, analysis of poetry, and Maths problems. The writing walls foster purposeful academic talk as they work together, and reinforce all the links between their knowledge as they sequence their thoughts on the wall.
The open spaces also boost motivation and hold you accountable. You can’t clock off for a snooze as you might in your bedroom because all around you are your peers beavering away. In my role as a Governor recently I saw how a new Sixth Form centre with purposeful, inspiring and quiet open working spaces was transforming the approach students had to work. They were coming in earlier and staying later because they enjoyed using the building so much. Just like in our Ideas Hub there were open spaces to work but also quiet pod spaces for those who wanted their own private space.
Over the summer we are refurbishing our main teaching block, the Richardson Building. Writing walls will be going into the classrooms. Polymorphic tables will allow more flexibility in the way our classroom furniture is arranged, and one game-changing move will create more space in the classrooms for teachers to circulate. Acoustic treatment will ensure that our pupils’ voices can be properly heard in class discussions.
What’s lovely about the campus at NLCS is the choice our students have in where to work. They are also very lucky to have access to such beautiful outdoor space and such variety. They can run around a sports pitch, or have a quiet sit down in grade 2 listed gardens, or lie on a bean bag in our new outdoor pods, or wander down Lime Avenue, the Herbaceous Border or the X Trail, or play table tennis on our outdoor tables. Mrs Dawson spied some Sixth Formers lying down under the Tipi the other day having a little nap. The spaces lend themselves to the active and the quietly contemplative.
As your daughters discover a little more space in their diaries over half-term, I wish all of them and you some rest over Bank Holiday.
