EDUCATION IN THE CITY OF NOTTINGHAM 23 



also equipped and furnished, with these purposes in view. The seating 

 accommodation consists not of desks but of tables and chairs. 



The planning of these new schools can be best illustrated by a des- 

 cription of the largest of them — the William Crane Schools of the Aspley 

 Housing Estate, an estate of over 4,000 houses. The schools are worthily 

 named after the Chairman of the Housing Committee and of the School 

 Buildings Committee, to whom Nottingham owes a great debt of gratitude. 

 They were formally opened by the Archbishop of York in 1933. On a 

 central circular site of 12y acres, six schools have been built round a 

 playing-field of 2^ acres. The schools consist of a senior boys' school 

 and a senior girls' school, a junior boys' school, a junior girls' school and 

 two infants' schools, with a total accommodation for 3,000 pupils. Between 

 each junior school and an infants' school there is a large hall which will 

 seat over 1,000 persons. One of these halls has a large stage with a 

 sloping floor, the other has a smaller stage. On each side of the hall are 

 lavatories and offices for both sexes, approached by covered ways. One 

 of the halls has a movable boxing ring and is marked for badminton. 

 Below each hall is storage for the chairs. 



Each senior school contains nine classrooms, a gymnasium, two school 

 clinics, an art room, a science room, and a craft room. The girls' school 

 has also two domestic subjects rooms equipped with gas, coal and electric 

 stoves. The boys' school has a metalwork room and a woodwork room 

 divided from one another by a soundproof partition. The large play- 

 grounds are marked for tennis, netball and other games, and are used 

 both in the day and in the evening. There is a large canteen which can 

 provide meals for 200 persons at a sitting. 



A school nurse attends to minor ailments of the children imder the 

 supervision of the Committee's medical officer. Each school is provided 

 with a school garden. There are also school orchards, two greenhouses, 

 cold frames, beehives and lily ponds. There are only four entrances to 

 the schools, two of which lead directly to the large halls. The central 

 playing-field is not large enough for the general requirements and could 

 well have been made larger. There is, however, close at hand a public 

 recreation ground and a 10-acre school playing-field. 



The school has been open since 1931, and not only provides education 

 for 3,000 children but also accommodation for an evening institute for 

 girls and women, an evening institute for boys and men, for meetings of 

 Girl Guides, co-operative guilds, W.E.A. classes. University tutorial 

 classes, for religious organizations on week-days and on Sundays, and 

 also for a large self-goveming social centre consisting of residents on the 

 estate. The social centre has its own monthly magazine, a sports section, 

 a debates section, a horticultural section, and a recreation section which 

 supervises whistdrives and dances and other social functions. 



At the present time three schools are in course of erection, the Mapper- 

 ley School with accommodation for 450 with a Hall specially planned so 

 that it will not only fulfil the requirements of its day pupils, but will also 

 serve for social purposes and dramatic performances in the evenings and 

 school holidays, the Whitemoor School extension, accommodating 450, 

 with its stage for dramatic performances, etc., and the John Player School 



