The First Half Year - Planning for the art and design department at Countesthorpe College, Leicestershire

Abstract

The last six months have been a time of considerable stress for the staff and the students at this new school. This has been particularly true for those of us who are concerned with the creative arts, crafts and design. We opened in August 1970 with an incomplete building, designed to fulfill the function of an unstreamed upper school and community college. The initial intake was of the order of eight hundred of whom about three quarters were of middle school age, the rest of first year upper school age. This intake was also far from being homogeneous, not least of all in respect of previous experience in design studies.

Although the college has already received much publicity and has, perhaps become the subject of some controversy, there is little that is completely new taking place at Countesthorpe. What is being attempted, is the putting into practice in one school of many innovations already being carried out in many other places. Even so, students and staff joining the school find a great deal that seems new and not a little disturbing. It is certainly true that many of our difficulties stemmed from confused expectations of one sort or another.