Premises and Equipment (continued)

The hall is a large room of good shape, but its acoustic properties when it is not full make it an unsuitable centre for class music; it is also inconvenient for the storage of instruments. Reference is made to the facilities for other subjects in the relevant subject-sections of this report. In general they are good, but the usefulness of the fairly spacious playing-field is limited in wet weather, apparently because the drainage is unsatisfactory.

The cloakroom space for the teaching staff is unsuitably situated In the sanitary offices. The prefects have a small room, which was originally intended to be a store-room - they deserve more worthy quarters. The covered space for bicycles is quite inadequate in spite of small extensions in the last two years.

The school is reasonably well equipped, except to the extent noted in the subject-sections later in this report, but attention must here be drawn to the inadequacy of the supply of books for the large sixth form in several subjects.

The kitchen was intended for the preparation of 500 meals a day. The number of boys who stay to the midday meal, however, is well in excess of this figure, and in addition meals have to be provided for members of the teaching and kitchen staffs. The kitchen itself lacks some necessary equipment and a proper means of taking away the steam from certain of the sinks.

The school has greatly benefited from the many generous gifts it has received from the very active parents' association. The association has, for example, donated £1,000 for the purchase of library books, and curtains have been provided for the hall. In a very short time an even bigger project the erection, at a cost of some £5,500, of a junior common-room to serve as a meeting place for the sixth form and some of the school societies will have been completed.

School Library

The school library of some 5,000 books is housed in a very pleasant room. The pressure on accommodation, however, is considerable. Although the library is not often used as a teaching space, the number of sixth-formers who wish to use it for their private study is so great that many of them are unable to find room there.

The collection of books has been well chosen, but there is a preponderance of books for reference and specialist study, mainly for sixth-formers. More books of general interest, biography, hobbies, and fiction are now needed, and also books of every kind for juniors and middle-school boys. It would be helpful, too, to have more books of the kind which would provide background and general reading in the various subjects of the curriculum, and which would stimulate and support the specialist work. Considerable assistance, as mentioned above, has been received from the parents' association in the purchase of books, and the county library provides a useful collection of books on loan. There is also a fair selection of periodicals and some newspapers. The books are catalogued by author and subject; stock and accession registers are kept. Suggestions about the choice of books to be bought come from the heads of departments: it would be useful to encourage the boys. to play a greater part in making recommendations.

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