Good schools in bad buildings

CA T HOL IC schools, Cardinal Heenan has saki. are here to stay—just like the Rocky Mountains. But, unlike the Rocky Mountains, Catholic schools sometimes fall down, or at least they become so antiquated that it might be better if they fell down.
Take the case of one school in the North about which I received a report this week. It is situated in a heavily built-up area. The buildings are over 150 years old and were in use as a school at the time of the Battle of Waterloo.Rising damp makes a mockery of attempts to paint the walls and the district is infested with rats to such an extent that the ratcatcher has to visit the school two or three times a Week.
t have deliberately chosen what is probably orie of the worst examples of a slum school where conditions make the ordinary business of educating children into a near-night mare. But this kind of situation is not uncommon.
Fr. Herbert Veal, chairman of the Westminster Diocesan Schools Commission, can claim that some bad buildings— though the diocese has built and is building many new schools—come under his care in an area which includes London's East End.
He says that he has never come across any rats in a school such as in the case I have just quoted, but he admits that there are some "very bad premises, built as far back as 1840."
Fr. Veal's problem— and the problem of everyone concerned with education—is that there is too little money for too many projects. The re-building of old schools is not a priority. The Department of Education, says Fr. Veal, "rightly considers that the most urgent proposals are those which involve an element of basic need. That means that new schools must first be built where the children have no school at all."
The reason why the older buildings have to stay is because there is still such a tremendous demand for new schools. "The bulge we are suffering in Westminster now is due to the increase in the birthrate in the 1950s and also the influx of Catholics from Ireland and from the North," he says. "This bulge is disappearing and we should get on a fairly even keel by the 1980s."
At present the Westminster Commission is -spending a gross amount of well over £1 million a year of which 80 per cent is Government grants. In this way one diocese alone is creating up to 3,000 new school places a year.
But a new school in Stevenage does nothing to alleviate the worry of those parents whose children attend a depressed school in Inner London. Just how does the education in such establishments differ from that in their newer cousins and what can be done with the limited resources available to improve the amenities?
Fr. Veal defends those who have to teach in old and cramped buildings. "First of all the religious orders tend to be in the deprived areas, and thank God they are," he says. "That is just where they want to be—in the worst areas because of their special dedication. There are a tremendous number of very dedicated lay teachers in old schools.
"It is important to remember that the buildings do not make a school. I've seen some first-class schools run in very bad premises. There are disadvantages, of course. Play space is most inadequate; very often the children have to walk considerable distances for their dinner, and there are no P.E. facilities on the spot. But the dedication of the teachers is every bit as good as in a new school.
"You must also remember that the families who go to these schools live in these areas. Their roots are there. People can't just be removed. They wouldn't want to be," Fr. Veal says.
What can the parents and managers of a slum school do to improve conditions? "Some," Fr. Veal says, "tend to start shouting: 'We want a new school!' They won't accept anything less and they go on shouting it to the television, the Press and anyone who will listen. They see schools being built which in comparison appear luxurious.
"But they also should see what they can do for themselves in the meantime. There is a Minor Works scheme by which the Department of Education allows anything up to £25,000 for improvements. This means that you can, in fact. rebuild phase by phase. That much money would build four new classrooms, for example, "I can think of one school which has buildings as bad as some of our worst schools and yet the managers by sheer ingen unity have worked a miracle of transformation. It is brightly painted, remodelled to provide new staff accommodation and teaching areas and there are pleasant little corner libraries and amenities for the children, not unlike those you find in some of the new schools. Before the miracle it was a wretched old building.
"But some of the managers don't realise you can do this sort of thing.
What about those accidents that parents have said are due to overcrowding? "Accidents," says Fr. Veal, "do happen in an overcrowded school. but let's face it, in every school there is some risk of injury. If you tot up the annual injuries in any school each year you will be amazed.
"Most of them amount to scrapes and a few are fairly serious cuts. They are not all caused by overcrowding. The situation can often be improved by moving a few desks around, resiting equipment or rearranging classes."
As Cardinal Heenan has said, there is little doubt that whatever others may suggest. Catholic parents want Catholic schools for their children. At present in some areas barely a third of the children can be accommodated in Catholic schools.
"However in the Westminster Diocese." says Fr. Veal, "if we continue to receive annual building programmes as at present we should have places for about 70 per cent of our children in the 1980s.
"The local education authorities and the Department of Education go out of their way to help us. Many improvements are in the pipe-line."