The Learning and Skills Council has agreed to provide £2.4 million to Sheldon School to fund a new Sixth Form Centre.
This is great news for Sheldon. Particularly for pupils who are currently in year 10 and year 11. The new building is due to open in the summer of 2008.
The project already has planning permission from North Wiltshire District Council. DKArchitects of Bath have designed the new centre. Building will begin this summer and will be completed in the June or July 2008, ready to welcome students in September 2008.
The new sixth from centre will have a large study area downstairs which will be equipped with laptops linked to a wireless network. There will be an A level science laboratory and three classrooms for sixth form lessons on the ground floor, with a further four classrooms on the first floor.
The sixth form’s existing common room will be extended and fully refurbished, the adjacent catering facilities will also be extended and the area between the new and old facilities will become a paved plaza with attractive fabric canopies.
Detailed drawings of the plans can be viewed in this large pdf file. The architects have designed a large, impressive study space, which will become the focus of the centre. It is a tall and airy space, overlooked by the first floor corridor. The orientation and design of the building aims to minimise solar gain and to maintain cool temperatures in the summer months. There will be a “grey water” recycling system which uses rainwater to flush the toilets in the block.
See the architect's plans here
The LSC funded the project because of Sheldon’s exceptional sixth form growth. The number of students in Sheldon’s sixth form has risen from 146 in 2001 to over 322 in 2006. It is planned that total student numbers will rise to about 395 in 2009, with 200 students entering the lower sixth each year. (The school already has over 220 applications for entry in 2007.)
The growth in Sheldon’s sixth form numbers has not resulted in lower standards – quite the opposite. In 2006, A level results in Sheldon’s Sixth Form were the best ever achieved by a Wiltshire comprehensive and the best in the region. The average A level points per student achieved at Sheldon was higher than in any of the independent schools in Bath or Bristol.
Read more about Sheldon's 2006 exam results here...