Wishlist
6 03 2007What do you want in the new school above all else?
This should become a wish list of all items that we want in the new school.
Do we need a theatre, cinema, music recording rooms, film studio, swimming pool, lecture rooms, all-weather pitches, specific common rooms for all year groups?
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I feel that music recording studio would be great for all the musical people of the school. This would influence people to join music, and to take an intrest. I feel it will be a new learning curve if we had one present because A lot of students wouldnt be able to do things like this out of school. I think it would be a great idea.
I think we should have a big stage so that we can have more musical events (e.g. rock concerts) at the school.
common rooms for each year so boys can go and work or play instruments etc. during lunch
A “parking bay” for coaches and buses (like altrincham college of arts)
A bigger weights and gym facility
Bigger/more changing rooms
Seating areas outside
Grass which can be used at lunch and break by students as well as the playground
“Cinema” for the film club
or double up a lecture theatre as a cinema too.
Solar Panels or other renewable energy generators for lighting (?)
Music Recording Studios
wider corridors (avoid “crushes”)
More facilities for different extra curricular activities (filming studio, art studio etc)
cinema for the film club
or at least a black room with the correct lighting
any other agree?
all weather pitches (indoor as well) are a must!! let us play football at break and lunch without falling and getting little stones in our knees!! Also, the cinema idea is very good, as it will encourage people to go to the film club, how about a popcorn machine!!! that would be pretty cool. solar panels..cut down on electricity bills, more changing rooms as currently we are completely squashed in the ones we have got. and also definitely common rooms for each year school shop/vending machine for pens/pencils/rulers etc. fingerprint/retina scans instead of lunchcards as you cannot lose your eye or finger very easily. PDAs instead of planners because they’re cool
I think that the new music department unquestionably needs to be looking into being a much more flexible institution for everyone. It needs to be more than ‘the music room with a few practice rooms next door’ (which I hasten to add, you can see through the roof tiles and into what suspiciously looks like a dollop of asbestos). It needs to have separate rooms for orchestra and choir, recording studios with computer technology, where pupils can make their own music and do coursework, practice studios and of course an adequate music classroom, maybe two if we are to have more pupils. This would encourage more people to take music, and participate in extra curricular activities. In the long term, this will create a fully professional music department for which we can all aspire to be a part of, and maybe encourage the school to perform in public performances like all the other top schools do. (excluding speech night).
A two teired drama theatre with professional electronic studio for lighting and special effects - to create more professional performances.
A swimming pool that doesn’t congeal, housed in a brick building.
A Cricket pavilion
A gothic style chapel - separate to the main body of classrooms (not like the current the prayer room is), maybe adjoining a quadrangle. The chapel should have cloisters and gardens, with a memorial and statues, a bit like York Minster or Westminster abbey but 100 times de-sized - just for reflection for the pupils, prayer group meeting place and maybe small masses for year groups or forms. Modern buildings come and go, but a decent church can be there for a millennium. Also have a huge crucifix in the main hall of the school.
An exam room - i.e a room dedicated to exams and tests only! This is so that we don’t miss anymore PE lessons because exams are in the gym, and we can access material in the library all day, instead of exams being held there constantly.
Computor suites for each faculty and maybe even a resource library for each faculty. For history we could have a proper research library with spiral staircases and portraits of famous historical figures which will make students apprieciate them more etc etc.
Also, maybe a clock tower to make our school recognisable.
There, not too much to ask for
All weather pitches, seating outside (benches for conversations), a gym facility with new equipment , possibly a astroturf
A common room for all years is a must. i also think that the canteen should be a lot bigger than it is now.
Gym, this needs to be a lot bigger and that it should be for many sports.
An exam room - i.e a room dedicated to exams and tests only! This is so that we don’t miss anymore PE lessons because exams are in the gym, and we can access material in the library all day, instead of exams being held there constantly.
It is very interesting to read your views and aspirations towards your new school building.
As Framework Director for Balfour Beatty Construction (one of the potential bidders/builders of the new school) I welcome your views and will pass them onto our architect and designers with the aim of incorporating them into the final designs.
I will keep checking back for any further comments
Regards
Barry
How about more food options like a salad and fast food bar and a tuck shop for people who don’t want school lunches?
we really need astroturf + double glazed windows so we can play with proper footballs. i don’t think we should go and get a cinema but a dark room with lots of seating and a projector would be good. i like the idea of a school shop for pens, pencils, rubbers etc.. bigger music practise rooms. wider corridors is a must. one thing i have noticed are the science lab stools, they are so uncomfortable, they need to be improved
+ exam room :s forgot about that one
if possible retain the original position for the rugby pitches, facing the road, it gives an individual approach to st ambrose.
You look across to st ambrose through the pitches and this gives it a much more attractive appearance.
The rugby pitches could be larger especially for backup on the first team due to weather, with drainage systems. (stands if possible)
a environmentally friendly school eg. solar panels, windmills.
common rooms for each year and a large six form equipped with pool tables and leather couches etc
thankyou
i think that we need the canteen to be near outside and there should be tables and chairs so that people can have lunch ouside on our seldomn sunny days
i think that all rooms must be a lot larger, especially for science rooms. the canteen needs to be bigger, maybe seperate canteens for each year group so that
you can get into lunch earlyer.
this isn’t so much to do with the building it’s self but i thing that we should get a school newspaper that is on sale in a school shop.
ps and sound proof music rooms
A common room for each year group is a must.
Larger changing rooms.
Roof lights with blinds (for sunny days)
Air-Conditioning is a must - hot sunny days mean having curtains open because the windows are open.
Better playground.
Place for buses.
Driveway needs improving.
Swimming pool - in a brick building with proper changing rooms.
Exam room with permanent desks.
Storage (not shelves) at the back of every classroom.
Classrooms in a circular shape - allowing easy access to other rooms.
Bigger stage.
Cinema room.
Larger canteen.
Interactive whiteboards in every room.
Computers in each classroom.
Homework/revision room for each year group and subject (with textbooks etc.).
Larger corridors.
Bigger music room and more practise rooms.
An environmetally friendly design with wind or solar panels.
A library/ computer area that has a wider selection of books, more computers and comfortable seating.
Areas with sofas and tables to relax.
Plenty of natural light.
Wide Corridors.
Larger changing rooms that are more spread out.
A swimming poll in the main building- not a grotty shack.
Bigger classrooms with more desk space.
A full size basketball court.
More art rooms and facilities.
Better music areas.
A bigger canteen with more serving areas and seating.
we need a cricket pavilion for the school fields. It has to have an open top balconey and moden changing rooms
I think that we should have:
solar panels and Wind Turbines,
A seperate theatre for the Plays,
A larger Gym,
and a Optical System to let us use library Books, get into the school, etc.
Music and film recording studios sound really cool, but we should be prioritising the things we’ll use every day, like the canteen etc. Also, if we had that thing with a card instead of registration, then people would log other people as in, when really they are skiving.
One of the ideas brought up at the meeting today was registering using smart cards. I think this is a good idea, but you need some safety system to stop one person clocking another in (it would make skiving REALLY easy) and you would still need some form time and a form tutor like now, so that you have someone to go to if there is trouble.
The new building should also make better use of the natural light than the current one - I know this is Manchester, but do we really need the lights on all the time? (waste of electricity) Maybe the school coul have solar panels, wind turbines etc to generate some of its own electricity.
Food tech?
film editing?
coach and bus stops?
I think it is all very well and good to say we need couches and shiny new cantine furniture etc. but we need to remember that the new school must last, and i think the most important thing is to design the school in a way that makes it easy to maintain.
Wide corridors and more space in general are needed.
Another idea I had was a more organised queuing system for the cantine.
School amplifiers and larger intruments should be considered because the extra curricular activities organised by the music department are often not attended just because people find it so inconveniant to carry their guitars or amps or brass instruments etc. Also, drums can be a problem with there only being one set in school.
Blinds or curtains in all classrooms would be good because sometimes harsh light can distract people from work.
Electronic registration exists in many schools already and works perfectly. I dont think there is really any need for smart cards.
A 25m swimmin pool which is in brick housing
Recording Studio is a must
So is common rooms
Recycling point
bigger changing rooms
all weather pitches
a bigger gym
better canteen
better DT facilities
More musical recources
Practice rooms which we can use
tennis courts
field which we can play on during break
concert hall
bigger classroms (science)
better toilets
virtual reality studio
elevators and conveyor belts so we dont have to walk around!!
games room
smartboards in every room
laptop for everyone in year 10 above
organised canteen system
There are two main things that the school would benefit from. The first is a proper theatre, with a more favourable layout and better seating. The second is, as mentioned earlier, a recording studio. This would benefit boys of the college planning a career in music, but do not have the resources at home to record their own material.
a sensor could be placed at each door frame to register you. You would have a small electronic chip that would be sensored by the sensor in the door frame. this could help to register people accuratly and easily. the down side is that the electronic chips we would carry around could get lost.
I thin we should have more music equipment like an extra drum kit and more musc rooms so more peoople can practise and the practise rooms don’t get overcrowded like they are always doing now
A locker for every student to help keep things safe or stop things from getting lost e.g gym kits
Sound proof music rooms - trying to concentrate on your music is impossible when someone next door is on the drums!
Well, we have poor sports facilities so why not a huge new sports gym like Sale Grammar with a new 3Generation Astroturf pitch just like BTH.
Also a grass area or Cheap astro where we can play at lunchtime.
Also music studio for the people who like music.
My ideal plans for the running track would for it to surround the 1st 15s Pitch and then we could build a small stand that would hold about 100-200 people so we could watch the games and would also be a resolution to over crowding on sports day!
WIDER CORRIDORS! — Crushes Hurt
Not that much to build.. Alex.
i think we should have a car park for sixth formers
i agree with alex McQuade
As I said much earlier today:
Some of the ideas posted on this are so unfeasible, it’s laughable. I left the college nearly two years ago now and I saw a lot of change come in, many of which have failed drastically. ~I think the school should concentrate on getting the basics right. By that I mean, less talk to cinemas, chapels and theatres and more of widening corridors and having enough room to fit a whole class in a room.
With regards to the common rooms, the sixth form common room, which, as would perhaps be expected with over 200 16-18 year olds in a furnished room has always been trashed, the pool table was torn and had drinks spilt on it, the coffee tables were trodden on and broken, the cushioned chairs were cut open, and the tuck shop raided and left with massive debts.
No, I think the school should concentrate on getting the basics right, On the one hand we should remember that it is only a school, not a centre for the forefront of academic research; it is not feasible to have libraries for each facilities etc! I would have liked to have seen a return to the sixth form library alongside the common room (however, if un-staffed, it is questionable how “quiet” and “work inducing” this area could be). Great benefits could be obtained from having wider corridors to avoid 5 minute hold ups between lessons in corridor queue’s. Otherwise, an easily accessible TV / Computer for the odd demonstration for each class, and a great improvement for the science labs, (perhaps the return of a biology lab technician?) would improve conditions here. Certainly, I do not feel money should be wasted on electronic white boards that no-one knew or cared how to work in each class would be a good spend of government funding.
Though it is perhaps traditional, and a privilege for the sixth form to have a common room, I feel having a common room for individual year groups would spell disaster. And as an ex-pupil and soon-to-be upper band tax paying member of the public, I would be outraged if I was taxed 40% of my earnings so that money could be wasted on facilities that would, inevitably be trashed within a few years.
I apologise if my views seem to cast a negative light on the youth of today, and particular those of St.Ambrose. But I would hate to see s many millions of pounds wasted on such ”luxuries” in the future. Remember, it is a school built to teach - not a youth club.
A bigger canteen or a canteen for each yr to avoid having to wait in a line and less packed cantees.
Bigger playgrounds
i think a stadium should be introduced
I think that we should most defianately switch our computer systems to Apple as they are so much more reliable then Windows. Also I think an auditorium would work great for assemblies and allow the college to do more drama/ music productions.
firstly, why is everybody saying all the science labs need making larger. s1,2,3,5 and 7 are all fine. only four and six need a bit of a looking at.
secondly, can we either a) take the bars of the windows so we can open them totally or b) can we move them further from the window se we can actually open them aswell.
a sports gym like Sale Grammar, Green Lane etc wud be great. we also need a proper cricket pitch that everyone uses not jus the sixth formers.
if a music studio was to be provided it would have to be sound proofed and maybe hiring it instead of just going in and using it and (invariably) trashing it. then if it did get ‘trashed’ then the teachers would know the culprits.
a decent stage with SCHOOLS OWN lighitng facilities for the plays. with the current set up of lighting for the plays the equipment only gets to school a day or two before the play goes on and this is not long enough for the lighting people to sort it out.
with common rooms for every year, when would they be used? lunch or break? but apart form that never. the sixth formers use it in free periods as well. its just not feesible
an astro turf area would be great to play on but it would have to be the size of the current playground otherwise only some people could sue it at a time which isn’t fair.
bigger changing rooms, its too crushed.
better sports equipment. the cricket bats are rubbish (most of them). the cricket balls that you are forced to practice with are all falling apart, give no bounce at all and are just generally old.
somebody sed a locker for each student. dont we already have lockers that you can pay for and keep all through school. plus you shouldnt lose it in the first place. keep it with you/in a locker that is provided if yu hav a padlock.
an exam room would be perfect, preferably in a building on its own so noise isnt as much of a problem as it is in the gym/library at the moment. no more missed p.e lessons and more valuable resources in the library.
I agree with an earlier post, there are some very interesting ideas coming out here, but this is a school. I left Ambrose last year and I can’t admit to ever being annoyed at the lack of a cinema or recording studio. What did frustrate me was the poor classrooms, particularly the Science labs, the narrow corridoors, and the dodgy Sports Facilities.
These have to be improved before anything else is considered, a proper sports hall is a must, it’d be nice to have a ceiling in the physics lab, and the main hall needs to be more of a proper auditorium, with better facilities for the drama department.
It’d be nice to give each year a brand spanking new common room with pool tables, leather couches and jukeboxes, but exactly how long would they last before they got trashed i wonder?
There should definatly be rooms where different music styles can be studied and practiced. For instance urban and hip hop musicians would benefit greatly from record turntables to practice on and sampling machines to record and add effects with. This leads to a good possibility of a college radio station.
new cricket nets and a pavillion are needed so we can practice playing cricket. a new pitch would be nice too and a proper wicket; not artificial
i reckon we should not build over the senior cricket pitches because growing a new one will take about 10 years, so they have to stay, but we could do with some stands should we need them for a big occasion. A proper athletics track is a must, and we can do it like european footy stadiums, a track around the grass. and common rooms, dont 4get them
there should be a football pitch and a bigger gym with basketball nets
i agree i think that there should be a decent swimming pool and better basketball nets. I also think that every classroom should have an interactive whiteboard.
I think we should have a swimming pool because I swim a lot. I think every year should have a common room to go in at lunch or break to just sit down and talk and it could have some facilities like pool tables and tv’s.
Really big canteen, and an easy way to get in! Or smaller individual ones for each year!
Play grounds for each year
i think the school should have common rooms for each year
tennis courts
swimming pool
Cinema
Theatre
Very Large Canteen
Running track
astro Turf
music Studio
AND MUST HAVE BIGGER CHANGING ROOMS!
Cooking area
A six form study room should be a priority as the sixth formers presently have nowhere quiet to work. From a Mum’s point of view I would also like each form room to have enough lockers for each boy to hang up their coats . This would hopefully mean that they would no longer have to carry all their belongings around all day.
air conditioning in all the classrooms.
water in the pe changing rooms
more space in the changing rooms
Another former Ambrosian here,
It is essential that the schools’ science laboratories be modernised, the lack and state of current facilities is appauling, and whilst the excellent teachers do their best, the terrible learning environment hinders students education greatly. I agree in that the school certainly needs a new gymnasium, as the current gym is embarrassing. I note from drawings elsewhere on this forum that there are plans for a permanent althletics track, i agree that this would be a great feature, but on a site as small as St. Ambrose it is rather ambitious. Surely it would be more useful to provide space for more than ONE rugby pitch, as on the average Saturday morning the school plays host to 3-4 matches. I also see that there is little provision for outdoor cricket facilities, it seems from above posts that this is a consideration of many students and would be well used. It is not possible to create a cricket square on a rugby pitch, and so would require an area of pitch to itself. I also see that students would like their own common rooms for each year group. This is a terrible idea, what make St. Ambrose so great is the perfect cohesion of boys in each yeargroup, this bond has been formed through ‘activities’ in the yard-where all yeargroups sociailise. I firmly believe that keeping the yeargroups apart in their own commonrooms would not allow this bond to develop and groups may become distant from eachother. Also in a time concerned with child obesity, surely it would be beneficial to provide areas outside where children can run around etc.
Whilst there are some interesting ideas on this forum, we must remember what has made our school great. The school is based upon the catholic values, and excels in both academic and sporting pursuits. With the much needed investment St. Ambrose has received, surely it would be wiser to build upon these strengths to make the college even better.
In response to earlier comments i believe that the idea of having numerous football pitches in the wrong idea, that is we are a rugby school. Also i believe that the introduction of better gym facilities would benefit our senior sides performances as well as improve some pupils fitness. I believe we ought to keep the first XV pitch (rugby) where it is as this allows people to still drive past as see our sporting activites in action to promote the school, however the idea of having a all-wether pitch is one to consider. After all, the number of times on a saturday morning playing in a mudbath can get a bit draining.
I would like to see all weather tennis courts and also a couple of squash courts to encourage a school league.
individual cubicals for getting changed after games
hot showers
cubicals in weights room as well
a punch bag for weights room
more free weights
two football pitches as well as rubgby pitches as rugby pitches get turned up so when it comes time to do football in games the ground becomes waterlogged and ins’t vert pleasent to play on
better drainage systems for the pitches as in winter when it rains we often find it is so muddy our feet sink into the ground
bigger gym
trampolines
a shaded area of grass- benches under trees, walkway etc for the summer as many of us enjoy spending our time in the summer on field but currently cannot
I believe that there should be a proper track without holes, ditches or metal grids. Furthermore with a proper track we will be able to get proper track times that will be accurate. I also think there should be actual football nets that we can use instead of having to use the bottom half of the rugby posts; they are far to high and wide.
i feel the school should have bigger changing rooms because the changing rooms are to small for rugby games.
Don’t have class computers: ensure each pupil has a laptop. Have a college wifi system with 10MB (at least) access.
Have a theatre with no proscenium (you can always make a fake one), utterly dead acoustics and a high ceiling and lighting grid so it can be turned into a TV or a sound recording studio.
As a parent of a boy looking to move to Secondary Schools in September 2008 I have had the opportunity to look around a number of local secondary schools over the last few months. I was quite shocked at the lack of facilities available at St Ambrose compared with those around.
Altrincham Grammar, Urmston Grammar and Blessed Thomas Holford have recently add some excellent facilities to their school and it may be benficial for somebody from St Ambrose to take a tour around these schools and look at these excellent facilities before deciding what is required in the new school.
Kitchen open to students where they can learn to cook (i.e. take cooking at GCSE), so when they go to uni they don’t live off take-aways and micro pizzas!
That’s what i’ll be living off as I struggle to make noodles
*Edit
and high quality sporting facilities are a must with a grant like that x
i spent 7 years at st ambrose and can definitelty say that cinema’s and recording studio’s will not make a difference. all lockers should be in one place and situated throughout corridoors because there was nothing worse than needing things out of a locker whilst another class was goin on inside where the locker you needed was.
i definitely think a bigger canteen than the one we had 3 years ago is needed so that you don’t have to wait for the rest of the school to eat before you can get your lunch. it’s not fair to have to wait for other years to all eat before you can.
i’m not sure how drama now goes in the school, but if it’s still supported by great english teachers like there were when i was there, investment in good stage equipment is a must. making the whole school get involved, rather than just the “drama types” would happen if facilities were improved.
i wasn’t really into sports but i did support the success of the school teams. it was always a shame when another school arrived only to be told the pitches were waterlogged…not sure what can be done about this as know nothing about sport!
having more computer rooms available for classes to use would be a great idea but only if there’s been an improvement in the computer reliability. also being able to access sites that we needed for projects would be useful, rather than relying on filtering software to decide on what is accessible and suitable.
i definitely think the school should not be situated right next to hale road because the traffic noise and distraction would be annoying. the idea for the “quadrangle” plan is brilliant, especially if the different ‘quads’ were divided into year groups.
We need:
Proper Gym
Proper Footballs
Proper weight room
Need bigger Corridors
Running track
Stands
Pool
Astro
Laptops for all
Good draining pitches at least 5
CIRCULAR classrooms
Solar Panels
Exam room
Sofas
SPORTS FACILITYS improved
Not that much to build:)
really wide corridors that flow in a single direction.
a full size basketball court so that we can compete at our own school and train in a realistic environment.
sustanable energy sources.
massive oak skirting boards concealing radiators.
a grass roof?
athletics field.
olymic size swimming pool
maintainable interior as well as exterior.
graffiti-proof paint
apple mac computer system
fingerprint canteen payment system
an enormous and well-stocked library that is always open!
floods of natural light coming through walls of glass
communication between small landscaped courtyards and the indoors
clean, clinical toilets with completely washable surfaces
oh and lockers for musical instuments are a definate must
I think there should be a reformed canteen system that allows for orderly ques and easy access. There should be a few serving counters around the room so that people can get food quickly. The canteen should be large and separate from the hall. No more getting pushed and crushed in the que for grab and go!!!