ABSTRACT
A tour of Sutton Centre takes us from a large, carpeted foyer, welcoming and in no way intimidating, along corridors with large wall spaces covered, floor to ceiling, with evidence of students’ activities and successes: residential trips abroad, a basketball tour of the Greek island Cephalonia, a day trip to Boulogne, drama and dance performances, walking expeditions and voluntary work in the community. The displays of students’ work are no less colourful and energetic. The original open-plan spaces have, over time, and at the wish of both students and staff, been given more structure and a bit more privacy. Teachers have small rooms and niches clustering round their departmental resources centres. There is a small in-service suite where groups of teachers can hold meetings, and a communal area used by teachers and other workers at the centre, and for meetings between teachers and students; there is no traditional ‘enclosed’ staffroom as such: ‘This building’, said the chair of governors, ‘was built for kids and for teachers to teach kids. We wouldn’t have a room cut off from the rest of the school where the staff sit.’ Teachers queue up alongside students in the dining area and eat with them at the same tables.
