The Abingdonian 2019

6 The Abingdonian Michaelmas 2018 Beech Court Sixth Form Centre In September 2018, I entered the Lower Sixth and Beech Court opened its doors for the first time. It was a marked improvement on all three of the facilities it replaced (the Art Department, Library, and Sixth Form Common Room) and the new Sixth Form Centre particularly stood out, not least because Mr O’Doherty, the Upper Master, referred to it as being ‘world class’ in the first assembly of term. This epithet is well-deserved. The Centre serves, as one might expect, as the foundation of sixth form life, and it fulfils this role well. It houses spaces for both learning and relaxation, with sofas, cubicles, and rooms for silent study and group work. A steady gradation of seating, from the casual bar stools near the entrance to the enclosed workstations and ‘no food or drink’ signs at the far end, ensures that all needs are catered for. It would be disingenuous to pretend that the Centre isn’t noisy or crowded at break-times, but it is large enough that this isn’t really an issue. Even during these short, busy periods, the room still feels spacious: a row of floor to ceiling windows and glass doors along its length makes it feel airy and bright. The UCAS office is also situated within the Centre, ensuring easy access during the stressful Michaelmas Term of the Upper Sixth - Mrs Gibbard and Mrs Taylor are very happy for students to drop by during break, lunch, or free periods with concerns or queries about the university application process. The Library is close at hand on the floor above, so any books or resources needed for coursework or additional reading can be retrieved with minimum effort, highly beneficial as walking across the school is a laborious proposition for most of us. On that note, the Centre is centrally located, with a connecting walkway to Classics, History and Geography: it’s undoubtedly more accessible than the old Common Room which was below us exiles in Franklin’s and Morgan’s. When compared with the facilities that we had in Middle School, the Sixth Form Centre is entirely different. In Middle School the houseroom serves as the focus of time not in lessons, but it has a far greater emphasis on leisure than it does on work. This is understandable - little independent work is required in Middle School, and most if not all homework can comfortably be done at home. In the sixth form, by contrast, an equal amount of work, if not more, is done outside the classroom - hence the value of the support that the Sixth Form Centre gives is fully realised. This is good preparation for university - you are given the facilities you need to work well without supervision, and whilst Mr O’Doherty does, on occasion, prowl through the cubicles to ensure valuable work is being done, the onus is on us to manage our time. Whilst it may seem melodramatic to say that the new Sixth Form Centre has revolutionised or fundamentally changed school life, it has made a major difference to sixth form students, at least: from the wooden staves across the ceiling which have no identifiable purpose to the ubiquitously cerise colour scheme, it blends practicality and aesthetics to create a place that we can be proud of. George Carver, 6DTP