THE WYKEHAM JOURNAL 2021
a range of accommodation from the ancient spaces of College to the newer Commoner Houses.
‘ One of things I’ ve done this term is to spend time in almost every House, to see how they operate, where the matron’ s flat and laundry are, and how big the rooms and galleries are. They are all very, very different. But, of course, that’ s right; you shouldn’ t have identical boarding houses; if you did, where would your House spirit and ethos be? The Housemaster and his team are integral to that.’
Sustainability has been a key concern— particularly given the need to keep St Cross Road free of additional traffic. And interestingly, the design of the Houses also takes into account the unique requirements of girls’ learning. I noticed how Ali was speaking passionately about the‘ garden courtyards and cloisters’ of the planned new buildings. What has she noticed from working in a girls’ school about how they live and learn?
‘ Girls are quite tactile educationally; they often learn with others in a kind of clique. That’ s not to say they don’ t live independently; they do, but they enjoy time spent together in quite unstructured social spaces. For example, when the sixth formers would be working together at Benenden, they might find a little window seat to be based in together, or they might be holed up on the sofa having that workbased conversation. So, a slightly softer and slightly more organic way of working, and usually involving time with others in social spaces … on a stairwell or on beanbags outside the matron’ s office.’ I wondered whether the arrival of girls in the school would be a more profound change than the numbers suggest— with 50-60 girls in each of the two houses, and over the next two years an increased intake of day girls in Sixth Book. The character of the school will change quite profoundly.
‘ There is a danger of us thinking that the girls are going to arrive and then just fit in. We might talk about assimilation, but we’ ve got to recognize that things will look different. There will be new conventions, and there’ ll be new ways of talking about things. The language will change, and the way you might do pairwork, for example, in a lesson or the way you set up a presentation or whatever else it might be— those things will look and feel very different. The tone and pitch will sound a bit different, and there’ ll be different kinds of voices.
‘ Plenty of conversations are ongoing at the moment amongst both pupils and dons. We listen to what the current pupils have to say, and to what concerns
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