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
I got 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.
2. Five Modern Foreign Language rooms with IT cluster, office and storage,
included in above development.
3. Relocation of tennis courts and car park.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 I considered about what
kind of vocabularies to use as well. Since it is a formal interview with my
school’s principal I was 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 I thought 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, I didn’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
Number of Response
Response
20
15
10
Response
5
0
a
b
c
d
e
The answers
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.
No. of Responses
Response
Question
No. 2
25
20
15
Response
10
5
0
a
b
c
d
e
No box
ticked
The answers
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 music department 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
Question no. 3
No. of responses
25
Design:
20
Space:
15
Fine:
10
Facilities
5
Other:
0
Design:
Space:
Fine:
Facilities
Other:
Comments
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.
No. of responses
Question No. 4
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Response
Yes:
No:
The answers
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:
c:
d:
e:
The classrooms
The performance hall
The music rooms and music department
Other, please specify
Question No. 5
No. of Response
12
10
8
6
Response
4
2
0
a:
b:
c:
d:
e:
The answers
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
Just normal Straight line
43
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:
b:
c:
d:
e:
Very good in every way, it's easy for students to walk past
without being nudged by each other
Quite wide, there are some narrow corridors but still easy
for the students to walk without being pushed or nudged
Mixture of narrow and wide corridors but slight contact
between people
Formed mostly with the narrow corridors in the building
and quite uncomfortable
Formed with narrow corridors and always gets pushed by
students. Definite needs for improvement
Question No. 7
No. of responses
25
20
15
Response
10
5
0
a:
b:
c:
d:
e:
The answers
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
Question No. 8
18
No. of responses
16
14
12
10
Design:
Space:
Fine:
Facilities:
Other:
8
6
4
2
0
Design:
Space:
Fine:
Facilities:
Other:
The answers
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 have
their lessons (do you think it is spacious enough for the stage settings and
everything? (related to the performing arts)) Please tick one box.
Yes
No
19
28
Question No. 9
30
No. of People
25
20
Response
15
10
5
0
Yes
No
Answers
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
Female
26
21
Question No. 10
30
No, of people
25
20
Response
15
10
5
0
Male
Female
Answers
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?
From the analysis and results, I have found out that the students are not very
happy about the size of the corridors, because according to my questionnaire,
there are 44.7% of the students who took my tests thought that the corridors
were very narrow and small.
However, with the amount of the classrooms, pupils thought that it wasn’t
such a big problem and quite oddly, nearly half (40.4%) of the people thought
that the school has enough classrooms and it was all so good. It was
surprising that the students thought that the café needed more improvement
then the performance hall by 6.4% and the performance hall didn’t even come
2nd needed for improvements. It was Music department, which is peculiar
because for the 2nd question, over 30% (32%) people thought that the music
department was ok but could have some improvements. But the music
department still came second, which I didn’t really expect.
I do agree with the number of the classrooms part, because there are quite
enough classrooms but I don’t think that the school’s corridors are as bad as
students think. In my opinion, the reason why the majority of the students and
my opinion aren’t same is because the students might take the school’s
facilities for granted. I think this School is certainly one of the best schools in
the local area and facility wise, it is very good. Even the Ofsted report said so.
Therefore there could be hardly any reasons why the students have thought
that the school’s corridors are quite bad.
Even though, it would be helpful if I could compare one other random
school’s facilities with our school’s facility, I couldn’t do it, which was quite
disappointing. Generally the students want the new buildings corridors to be
wider and also to fix up the café more. And also students think overall that the
ADT block is quite ok. However this is just generalized summary, it could be
different if the questionnaire was handed out to every single pupils of Walton
High.
Next time, I would ask the students their ages if I get to do another survey to
the students and also I think the question no. 7 was answered in more
negative ways because when looked at it again, it gave me the impressions
that I might have asked them in a leading question, so maybe next time I will
reconsider about the leading questions more carefully.
Conclusion
Overall, I have enjoyed doing a research task on this new building topic. I
thought it was tiring but fruitful. I would like to look deep more into the
architect part but maybe when, the building is actually constructing, I will look
around about it more.
We can learn that the students of this School are interested about the new
building to spare their own times to do the questionnaires. Also as I was
saying in the ‘discussion’, it would be helpful if the corridors were little bit
larger in the new building, but I guess, the new building mean more spaces for
people to be around, but considering it wouldn’t be a bad idea.
I also think that the school’s teachers and staffs could read this report and tell
me what they think about it so maybe next time I could include some of the
information about the feedback. And also, it would be great if they could use
my report to listen to the students’ voices a bit more. I am part of the
community of pupils and I think our Principal would be interested about what
the students think about one of the big school’s events.
I predicted that the students would be annoyed with the performance hall a
lot but it turned out to be quite wrong, there are still some people annoyed
with the facilities however, more people are annoyed with other facilities than
the performance hall. (Which didn’t prove my prediction).
References
School website and planning documents
Appendices
Student Researcher – Questionnaire for the students –
Hello, my name is Chi-Eun and I am doing a research on what would the
new building (the school will be constructing soon) need to improve on,
based on the main building. So it would be very helpful if I can collect some
data from the various year groups.
1. What do you think about the amount of classrooms that the school
has? Please tick only one box
The school has enough classrooms and it is all good.
The school has quite enough classrooms.
The school has classrooms but could add some more.
The school has hardly enough classrooms for the students.
The school needs definite improvement with the amount of
classrooms.
2. What do you think of the current music rooms that we have?
Please tick one box
They are perfectly equipped with all of the musical needs for the art
people.
They are fairly equipped with musical needs.
They are OK however there can be improvement towards the music
department.
They are quite badly equipped and needs improvement
There needs to be definite improvement towards the music rooms.
3. Can you please explain in much detail as possible about the current
building? (Your personal opinion: do you like it?, designs, the
architect, stairs, is it comfortable to get around the school?, where
all the facilities are situated etc)
4. Do you like the design of the café? And if no, please explain why.
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.
The café
The classrooms
The performance hall
The music rooms and music department
Other, please specify
6. What shape do you want the new theatre to be?
(There will be only two options) Please tick one box
Crescent shaped
Just normal straight line
7. What do you think about the corridors in this main building? (school)
Please tick one box
Very good in every way, it’s easy for students to walk past without
being nudged by each other.
Quite wide, there are some narrow corridors but still easy for the
students to walk without being pushed or nudged.
Mixture of narrow and wide corridors but slight contact between
people
Formed mostly with the narrow corridors in the building and quite
uncomfortable.
Formed with narrow corridors and always gets pushed by
students. Definite needs for improvement.
8. What do you think about the current ADT block building that we
have? ( Like the design, size, corridors, light, stairs, rooms, etc )
9. Do you think the drama hall is convenient enough for the students to
have their lessons (do you think is it spacious enough for the stage
settings and everything? (related to the performing arts)) Please tick
one box.
Yes
No
10. Lastly, what gender are you?
Male
Female
Interview with our Principal & a little bit of research
In Thursday 2nd April 2009, at 1:10 I went to see Ms. X , in her office. She
showed me 2 designs of the school’s new building; she explained that there
were 2 architect companies competitor. And both of them drawn designs of
the new buildings that they are going to build if the school select them.
One design was theatre based, and the theatre was in the crescent shape.
However, it would be hard for the students to access in the building because
they have to go around and use the public entrance or go into the quite
narrow corridor to go into the new building. Also the English rooms are spread
out so the teachers won’t be able to communicate easily with the other
teachers.
The other design was more specific. The design seemed to be more
organised. The theatre was in just a straight line but there were proper
backstage and some changing rooms for the actors and the performers. Also
all of the practise rooms and English rooms were in the 1st floor altogether and
it seemed to be more efficient. However Mr. X (Performing Arts Director) and
Ms. X seemed to like the crescent form of a theatre even though they prefer
the 2nd design.
Ms. X said that there will be a some sort of a scene tower which will be able
to change the scene as the play goes along. As students have been informed,
there will be some English rooms, music rooms and music practise rooms and
a 380 people theatre. It is planned to be completed in September 2011 and
the school has promised to take 30 more children because of the new building.
The new building will cost 6 million pounds from the council funding which
they have promised to support for the school, and further 500 k was secured
from the DCSF.
It was interesting to see the new building designs and Ms. X has explained to
me in the interview in detail. She has also said that I could maybe come along
when the architects visit the school for the meetings about the new building
with the other students, which she already organised with.
This is from the school website in ‘Full Expansion proposal’. It is about what
the new building will include in more details.
‘There are six aspects to the building development:
7. 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.
8. Five Modern Foreign Language rooms with IT cluster, office and storage,
included in above development.
9. Relocation of tennis courts and car park.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Conversion of two seminar rooms to create a Post-16 science (physics)
laboratory. ‘
(And there will be a new and another café in the building. (I think))