School to be built with no playground or breaktimes because if children are enjoying lessons they don't need breaks - Has the world gone mad??

[coppertop]

The link is here but it takes a while to load.

A new secondary school is being built without a playground and the plan is to have no breaks either. I found the following quote quite disturbing:

"Project manager for the academy Miles Delap also defended the decision and said: ?This will not be like a traditional school, and we are setting it up like a business. You would not expect office workers to be allowed outside to run around."

My children aren't yet at secondary school age but this seems like complete madness to me. This is a state school btw.

Does this happen in other schools?

Have not real all the thread as I am on a carpet cleaning break but we have part of our school that we run as a business as part of the student's vocational qualifications and it works very well, at the moment a hairdressers and decorating studio but this is to be extended.

if he wants to run it like an office they should finish at 5 then.

I can't see how they can timetable in PE EVERY day for 2000 children to compensate.

We need to extend our school, we currently have the use of the parish hall and will hopefully get it from them when they build their new parish centre. We were told by the architects that we should retain the hall as...

(a)It would be the green thing to do.

(b)If we apply to the DFES for funding to extend and rebuild the hall in the existing footprint we would have the hall plans rejected and would be told to build a smaller hall, why...................because children do not need much space.

FFS it is your standard school hall, it is just more of President Tony's beauracratic shoite.

The new academy in the article is going to replace 2 or 3 existing schools. This is the first time that any of the parents have been told about the lack of play areas.

I must admit that I didn't do much running around at secondary school breaktimes but it was the only chance you had to catch up with friends and talk about stuff that wasn't about school.

Ds1 will be old enough for secondary school in about 4yrs. He's autistic and I already had my doubts about how he would settle in at one of these places (there's also a second academy opening at the same time) but I'm afraid that this would be the last straw for me. Even children with no SN need breaks.

"You would not expect office workers to be allowed outside to run around" But isn't that what we all do at lunch time - pop out to the shops, bank, sandwich shop or if really good, go to the gym or have a run/walk? Even we office workers will get up every now and then (about hourly where I work!) to make a cup of tea, get some water and will go to other people's rooms etc. My DS would certainly have gone crazy in a school like that - what no footie at break time?

Work is a different environment to school in that in school you are expected to sit and listen all the time class is in and your teacher can shout at you and dish out punishments to ensure your behaviour. Not so in work, you can chose you moment to skive when you want to, go for a coffee and 'speak to someone'. Its studip, the world has gone mad!

Perhaps they are planning to train them all to work in call centres....

Mind you, even those allow breaks.

The whole Idea is crazy, and OFSED will bollock them because they will not be able to have 'daily worship' as a school, they willnot be able to, since they will not have an indoor area big enough for all the kids.

We get this every time. Our hall isn't big enough for all the kids, so they all get 1 assembly a week.

We get panned by OFSED for it every time. Of course, no-one gives us the mony to build a bigger space.

In part, I think because bigger schools can offer more choices in what is studied by the students. I teach in a school of 1300. We can offer things that smaller schools can't, because we have the numbers to support a wide range of things. So we offer 4 languages at GCSE and also subjects like construction and Child care and development, run in collaboration with the local tech. We also offer psychology and media studies at GCSE and A level. We also run GNVQ and BTEC courses for those children who are more intereted in practical study.

They all still have a head of house and a head of year looking after them, so they tend not to get 'lost'

It is a fine line to tread, regadrding benefits vs drawbacks of large schools.

ou place had daily worhsips in the four hosues
ht eonly time you saw all 2 500 kids was at a fire drill

you lto arent LISTENING

ans snigger at MB meeja studies
bet only the really academic kids do that

We are listening Cod, but it would appear we do not agree with you.

I'm listening Cod but I disagree with you. children need breaks and space to run about imo.

Has anyone sent miles a link to this thread yet?

Breaks are necessary.

Pete, you can go spin in the mn vacuum.

I also disagree with tyou pete. Kids need breaks..

I'm happy in the size school I'm in. I would consider one that was bigger, but only if it had a very strong and well organised pastoral system

I don't think it's the size of the new school that is the problem here.

My childrens' school has 1700 pupils, the school literally right next door has 1600. Neither has any problem with controlling children or not knowing children.

It's amazing how many children the staff do know. My son, who has only been there since Sept, is often surprised when teachers he doesn't know from Adam know who he is, what he's called, who his sister is. The heads of year seem to be excellent at getting to know the 280 children in their year.

Our school manages to retain a community feel while also having the benefits a larger school can offer.

I have known struggling and problematic small schools, and big ones too. Size is not always either the problem or the answer.

FWIW I don't think that size is so much of an issue either.

But not having a play ground, or breaks seems mad.

I quite agree mb

but the EVIDENCE was htat it can work
nad for a HUGE amount of kdis in a VERY WELL disciplined school

Just re-read the link, and the head's comments that a playground for that number of pupils would have to be 'huge' and the situation, or the pupils, would therefore be uncontrollable.

It doesn't have to be like that. The 1700 pupils at our school aren't milling round one huge area.

There's a playground purely for Year 7s, to help the settling in process and so they don't have to turn up on day one and be faced with loads of older, bigger pupils.
Year 7s don't have to use that playground though, to my knowledge my children never did, but it's a safe, unthreatening space for them if they want it.

There's a playground for years 8-9, and I presume there's one for the upper school, although my children haven't quite reached that stage.

There's a large field which pupils can use except in wet weather. There are also various small areas pupils can gather in. My daughter and her friends tend to congregate in 'the Japanese garden', a really nice little area with various types of seating and attractive planting. That's where they hang out, gossip and eat their lunch in all but the coldest weather.

Children need breaks - don't we all? It's not just the running around, many children choose not to do that. It's the getting together with your friends, some of whom may not even be in many of your classes. It's about having some breathing space and some unsupervised time.

The idea of children being escorted to the dining room for the lunch and seemingly supervised during just about every minute of the day chills me. I don't know any work environment that operates in that way either.

"Another city academy, Unity in Middlesbrough, opened in 2002 without a playground, prompting criticism from government inspectors about poor design. The school later built a playground."