…at Thomas Deacon city academy in Peterborough.
“the absence of a playground will avoid the risk of “uncontrollable” numbers of children running around in breaks at the 2,200-pupil school” so if you can’t control over 2,000 children, why not just build smaller schools?
Brainless.
It’s a massive complex too and in what is fast becoming a rough area of town (the bit i got harrassed in one summer.) Mind you, there is a park opposite where they can all hang out and be worrying.
Oh right, so they will be able to be uncontrollable off the school’s premises. That sounds, well, just wonderful.
Well quite.
Another version of this on the bbc: “Alan McMurdo, head of Peterborough’s £46.4m Thomas Deacon Academy, said: ‘I think what the public want is maximum learning.'”
And of course maximum learning is achieved without ever relaxing…this guy is very scary. Doesn’t he ever relax? I assume there is no staffroom either as obviously teachers won’t be needing breaks, they will be performing maximum teaching?
It’s hard to know where to begin with criticising this, but I think we need to make an attempt, and I think it’s well past time that a light was shone on the city academy programme – this isn’t the first time they’ve built a school without a playground apparently. Unity in Middlesborough was similarly afflicted.
Oh, even better, apparently the playing fields may not be ready as the school opens…see the telegraph for more details.
My secondary school didn’t have a playground. There was a large sports field that was used for sports only. All breaks were spent indoors, only the sixth form were allowed off-site during breaks. I’ve only just realised this wasn’t the norm!!!
This reminds me of the plot of Recess: School’s Out – in which the megalomaniac Dr. Phil Benedict (played by the excellent James Woods) plots to scrap recess (playtime for us non-colonials) …