Student researcher
Improving the old building and developing the new building
Chi-Eun

Improving the old building and developing the new building

Chi-Eun

Abstract

Our school Principal has decided that our school needs an enlargement to its building and the school will be completed by September 2011. This will be building a new theatre inside its new building and will include more classrooms to the English faculty and Music department. The new building will need some of the improved classrooms from the old building and the new building will need to be developing the idea of Performing arts, since it is the mainly Performing arts building.

Introduction

Igot interested in school’s new building when I first heard that out Principal was thinking about construction, so when I was selected for the Student Researcher, I thought that I could work on what kind of improvements does the students want and require from the new building. I also wanted to find out about the new building’s design and what the new building will exactly include.

I have asked to The principal’s secretary, if I would be able to have an interview with the Principal about the construction and we arranged the date. The Principal showed me the two competitions building companies’ designs and explained it kindly to me. I’ve learnt that the theatre will include a some kind of scene tower where you can actually change the scenery and the background and many other facilities like:

‘There are six aspects to the building development:

  1. A new build Performing Arts Centre, including a purpose built theatre with storage; three music classrooms, including a music technology room and nine group practice rooms would double as changing rooms during evening productions.
  1. Five Modern Foreign Language rooms with IT cluster, office and storage, included in above development.
  1. Relocation of tennis courts and car park.
  1. Remodelling of the ground floor corridor to create an inclusive education and extended services area. Learning hubs for English as an Additional Language, Special Educational Needs and Vocational Education, as well as a Connexions access point and parental advice area, will be created. These changes will also help alleviate the health and safety issues associated with overcrowding on the ground floor corridor by reducing the number general classrooms in this busy area.
  1. Remodelling the existing music and music practice rooms to create two graphics / digital media rooms, a fitness suite as well as preparation and storage space for the kitchen.
  1. Conversion of two seminar rooms to create a Post-16 science (physics) laboratory.’

I have found out that the new building will cost enormous sum of money of 6 million pounds from the council funding and further 500k was secured from DCSF. Because the school was building a new building, the school agreed to take 30 more children from 2011. The council wants many kids to go into Walton High because it is an outstanding school as the Ofsted report have said and the council wants to create the additional capacity required to meet the demands for places indicated by parental preferences (full expansion proposal).

The Principal and I both wanted to know about the students’ point of view about the new building and I have predicted that the new building construction will be quite popular among pupils. I personally believe that the new building could be improved within certain extent but it should have its own performing arts department’s originality.

Methodology

I have decided that it would be significant that I use some of the methods and find out about what I want to know. I also used two methods for the reliability.

Interview with the Principal

This interview was to discuss about the construction of the new building. I decided to interview the Principal because I thought she would know the best about the new building and also as a principal, she could tell me about her own opinion towards the current building, so I took my opportunity and asked many questions towards her.

I thought about planning what kind of questions that I should ask her and what kind of questions that I shouldn’t ask her, also Iconsidered about what kind of vocabularies to use as well. Since it is a formal interview with my school’s principal Iwas quite cautious not to make mistakes in how I speak.

I used mostly open questions but there were some closed questions when I was interviewing the interviewee. While interviewing, I mostly got the open answers, which Ithought was quite nice and I have also attached my interview report at the back of this report so it should be useful.

Questionnaire to students

I have designed a questionnaire for students to fill it in for me. My mentor printed it and gave it out to many tutor groups. I have got many questionnaires but I had to select the proper ones out, otherwise the data would be just messed up.

I made my questionnaire, asking the students, about the facilities and other issues to do with the school, like lighting and space. Most of my questions were multiple choices. However out of 10 questions there were about 3 open questions where they had to write their own answers in, but I often received closed and short answers from the students.

I just wanted the pupils’ general opinion about the subject and I tried to make the questions with ethical intentions, even though the questionnaire wasn’t really to do with the ethical issues. But I still made sure anyway, I didn’t ask them to put their names down, but some people wrote it down on the questionnaire papers anyway.

I also used in between formal and informal language to make the students more involved however, Ididn’t wanted to be rude so I used a formal tone of writing. Luckily, there weren’t any disinterested people, because I thought I would realise it if the person has ticked all the boxes along the rows of the each questions. The questionnaire was mostly well filled out and I was happy to do this method because it worked affectively well.

The Findings and Analysis

These are the results that I’ve found out using the methods that I’ve mentioned from the methodology and from my research and data collecting.

From the interviews

I have found out that there will be some english rooms, modern foreign languages rooms and performing arts department.

The building will also include two physics lab for the sixth formers.

There will be a proper theatre with about 380 seats.

The new building would be very expensive.

It will be completed until the September of 2011.

From the Questionnaire (Data Analysis)

Question No. 1:

What do you think about the amount of classrooms that the school has? Please tick one box.

Student Researcher - Data Analysis
Question No, 1
a: The school has enough classrooms and it is all good
b: The school has quite enough classrooms
c: The school has classrooms but could add some more
d: The school has hardly enough classrooms for the students
e: The school needs improvement with the amount of classrooms

  • The graph shows that lots of number of pupils thought that the school has enough classrooms and it was all good.
  • The graph shows that very few students thought that the school is lack of the classrooms.
  • 40.4% of people thought that the school has enough classrooms and it is all good.
  • 19.1% of people thought that the school has quite enough classrooms.
  • 34% of people thought that the school has classrooms but could add some more.
  • 2.1% of people thought that the school has hardly enough classrooms for the students.
  • 4.5% of people thought that the school needs improvements with the amount of classrooms.

Question No. 2:

What do you think of the current music rooms that we have? Please tick one box.

Question No. 2
a: They are perfectly equipped with all of the musical needs for the art people
b: They are fairly equipped with musical needs
c: They are OK however there can be improvements towards the music department.
d: They are quite badly equipped and needs improvement
e: There needs to be definite improvement towards the music rooms.

  • The graph shows that most people thought that the current music department is ok as it is, however, there could be some improvements.
  • Only one person thought that the musicdepartment was horrendous.
  • 14.9% of people thought that they are perfectly equipped with all of the musical needs for the art people.
  • 32% of people thought that they are fairly equipped with musical needs.
  • 2.1% of people thought that they are quite badly equipped and needs improvement.
  • 2.1% of people thought that there needs to be definite improvements towards the music rooms.

Question 3:

Can you please explain in much detail as possible about the current building? (Your personal opinion: do you like it?, design, the architect, stairs, is it comfortable to get around the school?, Where all the facilities are situated etc.)

Pink: Comments to do with the Design:

  • It’s like a prison from the outside, easy to go-around but a bit boring.
  • I think the school is great but could be more modern.
  • The building is good but they could have better colours.
  • There’s too much wasted lighting. It needs to be more colourful in some places.

Pink: Comments to do with the Space:

  • It’s a bit too crowded to tight.
  • It’s a bit too cramped in the corridors.
  • It could have wider hallways.
  • It’s good, but could have wider hall ways.
  • The school is very big for us students.

Pink: It’s fine:

  • It’s fine
  • Good and well made
  • I like the school because it has different floors for different lessons.
  • It is awesome

Mv: Comments to do with the Facilities:

  • There could be more facilities. There are enough rooms.
  • I think all the rooms and facilities are OK but needs some improvement.
  • The ADT block needs an improvement.

pink: Other:

  • The problem I have is getting around the school.
  • -

Pink: 6

Green: 23

Yellow: 10 1/3

Orange: 6 1/3

Blue: 2

  • The graph shows that the students thought that the students thought it was quite cramped and the problem occurred with the space, which I personally think slightly not, because although the corridors can be quite crowded sometimes, the school itself is quite a big school.
  • The students thought the facilities were ok but could have been improved.
  • 12.8% of people answered the design related answers.
  • 48.9% of people answered the space related answers.
  • 21.3% of people answered that the school was fine.
  • 21.3% of people answered the facilities related answers.
  • 4.3% of people answered any other forms of answers.

Question No. 4

Do you like the design of the café? And if no, please explain why.

Yes: 30

  • It is very light and has a lot of colourful artwork.
  • Yes, but I would like another exit that means you don’t have to go up the stairs or around the back.
  • The café is OK.
  • Yes, it is good.
  • Yes because it is big and has a good layout.

No: 17

  • No, not big enough.
  • Not really, it should be set out better like the way for us to use the facilities.
  • No, because it is cheap and boring.
  • No, can’t see fire on the big mural (poster).
  • There could be more tables and needs a better table layout.

  • 63.8% of people answered yes.
  • 36.2% of people answered no.

Question No. 5

What would you like for the school to improve on? (Which area of the building especially for the new building?) Please tick one box.

a: / The café
b: / The classrooms
c: / The performance hall
d: / The music rooms and music department
e: / Other, please specify

  • 23.4% of people thought that the school should improve on the café.
  • 17% of people thought that the school should improve on the classrooms.
  • 17% of people thought that the school should improve on the performance hall.
  • 19.1% of people thought that the school should improve on the music rooms and music departments,
  • 19.1% of people thought that the school should improve on other facilities.
  • My personal opinion would be that the school should improve on the performance hall, which they are doing now, they are making a new theatre instead of using the performance hall.

Question No. 6

What shape do you want the new theatre to be? (There will be only two options) Please tick one box.

Crescent Shaped / 43
Just normal Straight line / 4
  • 91.5% of people thought that the new theatre should be in crescent shaped.
  • 8.5% of people thought that the new theatre should be in just normal straight line.
  • My personal opinion is that it should be in crescent shaped because it is a different idea.

Question No. 7

What do you think about the corridors in this main building? (School) please tick one box.

a: / Very good in every way, it's easy for students to walk past without being nudged by each other
b: / Quite wide, there are some narrow corridors but still easy for the students to walk without being pushed or nudged
c: / Mixture of narrow and wide corridors but slight contact between people
d: / Formed mostly with the narrow corridors in the building and quite uncomfortable
e: / Formed with narrow corridors and always gets pushed by students. Definite needs for improvement

  • 4.3% of people thought that the school’s corridors are very good in every way, it’s easy for students to walk past without being nudged by each other.
  • 2.1% of people thought that the school’s corridors are quite wide, there are some narrow corridors but still easy for the students to walk without being pushed or nudged.
  • 8.5% of people thought that the school’s corridors are mixture of narrow and wide corridors but slight contact between people.
  • 40.4% of people thought that the school’s corridors are formed mostly with the narrow corridors in the building and quite uncomfortable.
  • 44.7% of people thought that the school’s corridors are formed with narrow corridors and always gets pushed by students. Definite needs for improvements.
  • In my opinion I would go for c answer, because the school’s corridors aren’t narrow, it’s just there are too many students always walking past.

Question No. 8

What do you think about the current ADT block building that we have? (Like the design, size, corridors, light, stairs, rooms etc)

Pink: Comments to do with the Design:

  • Like the design
  • Like the design, it’s nice
  • The size is okay but it looks old.

Pink: Comments to do with the Space:

  • It’s always filled with too many people.
  • Fine, but too many lockers in one area. (the square part)
  • It’s okay but the corridors could be wider.

Pink: It’s fine:

  • It’s good because there are the rooms that you need.
  • Everything is fine with them.
  • Good open rooms.

Mv: Comments to do with the Facilities:

  • It’s easy to find classrooms/workshops.
  • Needs more lighting.
  • More textiles rooms.

pink: Other:

  • It’s a bit cold.
  • I don’t know.

Pink: 3 and half

Green: 13

Yellow:17

Orange: 7

Blue: 3 and half

  • 7.4% of the people answered the design related answers.
  • 27.7% of the people answered the space related answers.
  • 36.2% of the people answered that the school was fine.
  • 14.9% of the people answered the facilities related answers.
  • 7.4% of the people answered any other forms of the answers.

Question No. 9

Do you think the drama hall is convenient enough for the students to havetheir lessons (do you think it is spacious enough for the stage settings and everything? (related to the performing arts)) Please tick one box.

Yes / 19
No / 28
  • 40.4% of the people answered yes.
  • 59.6% of the people answered no.
  • Which I think the data has quite even answers, but if I had to choose then I will go for no and clearly the Principal and other teachers thought similar, that is why they are constructing a theatre I presume.

Question No. 10

Lastly, what gender are you?

Male / 26
Female / 21
  • 55.3% of the people who’ve completed the questionnaires are males.
  • 44.7% of the people who’ve completed the questionnaires are females.
  • It was about even numbers of both genders who took the questionnaires.

Discussion

For the reminder, this report was based on what kind of improvements does the school needs and what does the students actually wants from the new building, and also what is the new building going to include?