Schools : eighth report from the Select Committee on Estimates together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before Sub-Committee E and Appendices, Session 1952-1953.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Estimates
Date:
1953
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Schools : eighth report from the Select Committee on Estimates together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before Sub-Committee E and Appendices, Session 1952-1953. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    10 December, 1952.] [Continued. — 82. No, I realise that, but I meant for next year’s building programme have you got a school in mind that you will try and encourage?—(Mr. Flemming.) A set of ideas in mind to be applied to the problem of the particular school, but I would rather call it a plan of ideas than a plan of a school. 83. I am wondering whether any economies could be achieved by arriving at some standard school which might possibly be sold properly to the local authorities? —Our experience is that minimum require- ments vary very much, and that is as far as one can go, and beyond that you would defeat the object of getting a good school and getting economy. They are not just airy-fairy ideas; they are down on paper, and things that can be discussed sitting round the table. Mr. T. W. Jones.| Go back forty years, and you had then the McKenna School, and whoever the Minister was the school was named after him. I would not like to see a Horsbrugh School established in the way we had the McKenna School, and so on. I think that individuality in the matter of school building is as important, maybe more important, than individuality in the matter of housing. Mr. James Johnson. 84. Is it a fact that the local authorities have got their own architects on the spot who know the local conditions and often are an enormous help to you at the Ministry? —We have got a happy compromise, which is not really a compromise but a method of co-operation. On the one side it would be quite wrong for us to sit back and wait for a plan to be put up. Then you get the absurd position that work is done and you start criticising from the point of view of cost or other points of view, and that means annoyance and frustration. On the other hand, it would be equally wrong to tell the people how to do it. What we have done is to put up and give wide circulation to suggestions and ideas, perhaps, which can be used by the men at the other end who know the local problems and conditions, and which can be discussed ; and we have intro- duced the two streams of thought from the beginning into the result. Mr. Norman Cole. 85. I am glad to hear this point about the ideas being put out, but is there any method in existence of allowing education authorities to know what ‘has been produced by other education authorities throughout the country and which has been approved by the Ministry, and which might go some way to meeting their own requirements?— (Mr. Nenk.) We have in fact done that. One Building Bulletin shows details of about twenty schemes by various authorities. 86. With illustrations?—Yes, and in cur day to day consultations various schemes are produced, and we say: “ Perhaps you would like to see what So-and-so is doing about this same kind of problem.” There is a good deal of interchange, and the con- ferences are another forum in which that kind of swapping of experience takes place. 87. Is that only done when a particular scheme is under consideration? Is it circu- lated to all education authorities under the Ministry?—The Building Bulletins are circulated. The informal consultations take place as and when the authorities wish. 88. When the authority has a scheme in mind?—Not necessarily, but in relation to the whole programme, for instance. Chairman. 89. Would it be possible for you to give us examples at all of schools you have con- sidered to be projects which are valuable and economic as compared with perhaps schools or projects which are uneconomic? = Yes. 90. In order that we might be able to see such schools if possible?—Yes. 91. You could give us examples of what you consider a good school as against what you consider an uneconomical one?—Yes. Mr. Norman Cole.] Could we have some illustrations? Miss Ward. 92. Could we have a copy of the Bulletin?—Copies of the Bulletin have been sent. Mr. Norman Cole. 93. I meant some blackboard illustra- tions to look at in large scale?—I do not know whether these diagrams* would be relevant here. They were produced for another purpose. This shows the kind of school which was. being built very commonly in 1949. The black is what we call circulating space, space used for getting from A to B. One kind of hatch- ing shows teaching space and another shows the cloakrooms and lavatories and kitchens and administrative space. The horizontal is administrative areas and so on. The diagonal is the classrooms. That is a later designed school which has been finished recently, showing a very much more com- pact plan, very much less circulating space and less ancillary space such as cloakrooms, lavatories, kitchens, and more teaching space. Chairman. 94. Are those examples in the Bulletin? —These specific examples are not in the Bulletin, but the principles lying behind this development in design are fully dealt * Passed round for Members of the Sub- Committee to see.