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Building for the future

Meet the Headteacher Heather Duggan, Archbishop Blanch School

Some teachers can go an entire career without being given the chance to help design and implement an entirely new school. At Archbishop Blanch, headteacher Heather Duggan is experiencing it for the second time in as many years.

Having left her role as deputy head at St John Bosco, where she was also lead on the new school build, Heather Duggan took her first headship at Archbishop Blanch in the city centre, a school with an enviable reputation but a lack of space in its cramped current site.

Luckily for its pupils, Heather has arrived in the final year at its site. In September 2015 the pupils will decamp to a new £16m purpose built facility a short distance away on Earle Road.
“It would be wrong to say the new school wasn’t a draw,” she says, speaking on the day she was due to attend a meeting where many of the interior aspects of the school will be signed off.

“It was something I did enjoy and it’s not something that would normally fall into the portfolio of teachers. I always said that when you go to teacher training college you’re not taught how to design and build a new school. The experience that you do get going through the process is immense and it really does help to address what it is that you believe is right with respect to teaching and learning and then reshape what that can look like in a new build.”

Heather says dealing with new architects and contractors mean the experience is completely different to St John Bosco, and much of the work had already been done. However, she was still able to put her mark on the build during her first term at the school.

“I was able to come in at the exciting bit when we’re starting to discuss the interior design and the colours and the furniture. I have been able to have an input and so the leadership team and I along with the staff and a lot of the children, particularly through the student council, have been in regular discussions with regards to the new school.”

The new school will be ‘light and airy’ with classrooms and open spaces, including large spaces for assemblies and drama events. Catering for children from 62 feeder schools, the facilities will be extensive – a far cry from the current setup that requires a minibus to fields if the school wishes to do outdoor sports.

It will include a new gym and sports hall, dance studios  and a full performance theatre with a proper rig and lighting. “If you’re going to teach drama you should teach it properly in an environment that should be industry standard, “ says Heather. “We’re going to have a brand new 3G pitch outside and playing fields and we’re going to be right in the heart of the community as well.”

However, Heather insists the new school was not the main draw when it came to taking the role of headteacher.

She says: “Archbishop Blanch has a fantastic reputation anyway in the city. It’s an all-girls’ school and I do really believe that children do excel in single sex education. I’ve seen that at Bosco and I’ve seen that here. So I suppose it was the whole package of where the school was currently at really sat with my vision for education and my ethos in terms of what I believe.”

Archbishop Blanch is a Church of England school, although students from multiple faiths attend. The school is big on community values, with a community aspect to the curriculum and the chance to learn about different faiths.

Heather says the school also has one of the strongest science departments in the city and this is backed up by the number of children that go on to engineering and science courses at university. Putting it down to ‘good science teaching’, she believes the same-sex philosophy of the school is reaping benefits in every area.

“I think the girls are more comfortable in a single sex environment – not always – but that’s been my experience here and in my previous school as well. From year 7 children are exposed to high quality science. We’re doing lots of practicals and they enjoy it. They’re not exposed to this idea that women don’t go into science so they don’t see it as the issue. Girls can do it if they believe they can.”

The school is not entirely same-sex; the thriving sixth form is mixed and this means extra planning when it comes to a new school build to ensure study rooms, breakout areas and classrooms are able to continue its success.

“One thing we have done is to make sure we plan in sufficient space for the sixth form. Because it’s big, full and healthy and because it’s successful we thought it was important that they’ve got their own identity and space in the heart of the new school.”

Spending two days a week on a new school build, getting to know the staff and pupils and getting to grips with school policies is keeping Heather busy but she is relishing the role.

She says: “Obviously the previous head had been here a long time so with change brings apprehension but the staff and children have welcomed me. They’ve been very open about wanting to move the school forward and I’ve not come up against any negativity at all. If everybody is working for the same goal then we can all move forward and the new school will be a success.”

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