Gold Experience

Page 79

That corridor was a dangerous place to be when the bell rang and students
changed class. In fact, it was the scene of such complete chaos that it was
nicknamed ‘the corridor of death’! Students were always getting bullied there.
Discipline was really bad and a lot of students were excluded from the school
for a while or even expelled for good. Things needed to change, but how?

C In the end a team of designers was brought in and they decided the building
was seriously out-of-date. It had, after all, been built at a time when students
were expected to sit and listen to the teacher, but not to speak, so the
classrooms consisted of long rows of desks, with the teacher’s desk in front.
That way of teaching is largely out of fashion now. Our teachers know that
students learn in different ways and at different speeds, and that it’s good to
work in groups sometimes. They want us to speak up in class and participate.
And they often need us to stand up and present work to our classmates. The
designers knew all this, so what did they do to Kingsdale? They thought long
and hard and then … demolished the school! Well, not all of it, but quite a lot.
The old corridor and the classrooms were knocked down. In their place came
new, open spaces, suitable for twenty- rst-century students.

D The new design has made such a difference to our school! The huge futuristic
glass atrium in the centre is like its heart. Students from different year groups
meet here to socialise. In fact, learning to mix with students from other age
groups is part of our education now. We feel good about the school and
ourselves, and nowadays discipline just isn’t a problem. The open spaces make
it easy for teachers to see into the classrooms, which is great because bullies
know they’re being watched. Teachers say there’s far less bullying as a result
and far fewer students are being expelled. And ours is not the only school to
be redesigned in this way. Around the world, schools are being re-planned to
help change the way students are taught. So, if the designers asked you what
changes you’d like in your school, what would you tell them? How could your
school be changed for the better?

Exam

Find this task dificult? Answer the questions you nd easy rst and highlight the
places they occur in the text. That way there will be less text to search for the
dif cult questions.

5 Find words and phrases in the article that mean the following.

1 all the people who teach in a school (para A)

2 determined to make people obey rules and behave (para A)

3 bones where your ngers join the rest of your hands (para A)

4 people who are hurt or attacked by something or someone bad (para

A)

5 extremely hard or painful (para A)

6 very modern (para A)

7 a long narrow area between two rows of rooms (para B)

8 a lot of noise and activity caused because people are excited (para B)

9 not allowed to go into school to learn for a period (para B)

10 ordered to leave the school permanently (para B)

11 lines of desks next to each other (para C)

12 take part in an activity (para C)

13 destroyed; knocked down (para C)

14 controlling people’s behaviour (para D)

Speak up

6 What changes would you like to make to your school? Think about
the buildings, the classrooms, the facilities and the school rules.