Facilities

Grounds and Sports Hall

The School is situated in beautiful parkland within walking distance of the centre of Fairford. The 18-acre grounds are well maintained by our site staff. We have a modern and well-equipped sports hall.

Learning Resource Centre

In 1998 we opened a new purpose-built Learning Resource Centre which includes a major new investment in information technology, audio-visual facilities, and reprographics. The attractive environment and modern facilities make this a very pleasant place for our students to study and learn. The upper floor is designed for formal study, the lower floor for more casual browsing and reading.

All students have access to this Centre before school, at break and lunchtime and after school until 4.30pm. Mrs Richardson is our full-time Librarian and Mrs Wyatt works part-time as her assistant. They are always happy to help and the Resource Centre can be used to carry out independent research and homework outside school hours.

Books can be borrowed by all students and the Librarians will also help in the selection of books. The PTA has provided us with a computerised system to catalogue our books and monitor their use.

Information and Communication Technology

The school now has a network of over 350 PCs throughout the school. There are ICT bases in most curricular areas and 10 suites of machines throughout the school, some of which can be booked for whole classes.

All students are issued with a password and can log on to any machine and access their own work or the networked Microsoft programmes. The network also provides access to the Internet through an educational provider which protects our students from some of the less desirable aspects of this resource. We also have a range of multimedia titles that our students can use.

Catering

In 1998 the school took over its own catering operation. This has allowed us to improve the quality of the meals and snacks we are able to offer and give us more scope to offer healthy eating options. All profits from school catering are invested in the school so we hope as many students as possible will use the improved facilities we have been able to provide which now include a tuck shop. Food is available at break and lunchtime throughout the year. Pauline Tuckey is the Catering Manager and is responsible for this aspect of school life.

The Forum Arts Studio

In 1995 we opened the Forum Arts Theatre and an extension was added in 2000. In recent years we have produced a wide variety of excellent musical and dramatic performances, ranging from thought-provoking presentations of “Macbeth” and “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” to an exciting production of “Grease”(1998) and a stunning “West Side Story” (1999). The production in 2000 was 'Follow the Star'. Increasingly our Theatre Studies and Drama students are taking responsibility for not only the acting but also back stage aspects of the productions.