Teachers’ President Praises Cluster-Plan High Schools

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28270, 7 May 1957, Page 10

Teachers’ President Praises Cluster-Plan High Schools

Cluster-plan schools, which earlier were fairly generally criticised by teachers, have received a favourable report by the president of the New Zealand Post-primary Teachers’ Association (Mr M. A. Bull, of Timaru) after Dominion-wide visits in which he interviewed staff and committees.

“Almost every locality where these schools were put up talked scornfully of ‘hen-houses’ during erection,” Mr Bull says. “Now that the jobs are complete, or nearly so, there can be no doubt at all that their exterior appearance is thoroughly pleasing and the criticism of parents and the general community has given way to pleased approval. Although there are points where modification should be considered, the classrooms in general are good indeed to teach in and the staffs of all the schools I visited were really proud of their new teaching places.” Aspect Praised

Mr Bull praises especially the cooking rooms (“definitely the finest teaching place ever produced by the department”), the flexible laboratory, the wood and metal workshops, and the scale of equipment (“beyond anything allotted to a new school in the past”). , . A major worry, when the design was first shown, was the proximity of lavatories to classrooms. Mr Bull says these fears were groundless but the location in relation to outside traffic had raised problems which would make some redesigning essential. The other problem foreseen was the traffic between separate classroom blocks in wet weather. Mr Bull says that ahead of that problem is the inadequate functional planning for such traffic and the southern entrance to units in bad weather. “The materials and structure of the interior walls and floor throughout the whole school are

easily the best we .have had and it is a delight to see the consistent use of durable media,” says Mr Bull. One flaw which he had not expected to arise was in ventilation of some end rooms. This factor alone would require some changes which would mean that the first schools on this pattern would not be the final plan. Economies Worth-while

“The economies effected in these schools have been well worth-while in giving generous equipment and that most precious of essentials—an assembly hall,” says Mr Bull. “At the same time we know that this can be done with another equally-eco-nomical plan that gives perfect cross ventilation, better lighting, and corridors. This is the South Auckland plan which, I am now convinced, is the design the department needs to follow up to achieve a thoroughly effective scheme for the busy building years ahead. “If I were looking for a job running another school and had the choice of one of these cluster schools against any other you could name, with other things equal, I would unhesitatingly try for the cluster one first,” Mr Bull says as his final tribute.