Shiplake College has recently submitted applications to South Oxfordshire District Council for two proposed developments to the school site. A planning application has been made for a Sixth Form Centre (following the receipt of a positive pre-application response) and revised plans for a Boathouse and Multi-Activity Centre have been submitted.
The Sixth Form Centre would consist of a café on the ground floor, with two additional classrooms and two smaller seminar rooms (which could combine to make a larger classroom) on the first floor. The College is continuously striving to improve its Sixth Form provision to ensure that students receive the best experience and outcomes in a highly competitive market. The additional teaching rooms and breakout spaces will provide a dedicated hub for subjects only taught at Sixth Form, enhancing the student experience and helping the College to maintain its broad curriculum. Our Sixth Formers do not currently have a central common room where girls and boys from both Year 12 and Year 13 can meet to work or socialise. The café would act as a common room/meeting space between lessons and also double up as a study space during lesson time for those with an independent study period, reflecting the working environments often seen in cafés in town centres. It would have a small servery providing drinks and hot snacks together with toilets and a small office. It is hoped the café would also be used by parents watching sports matches at weekends.
The Sixth Form Centre would be located on the gravel area next to Burr House, with access from the driveway or the Stableyard side. It would continue the line of buildings that flanks the main drive, forming an impressive approach to the main Skipwith House at the end of the driveway. Temporary timber sheds currently used for storage would be removed and the usability of the car parking area improved so as not to reduce the amount of parking on campus. The café would open onto a small decked area with space for open air seating in good weather.
As the site is densely populated, with a number of Grade II listed buildings, there are few potential development areas. Working with the architects Nichols Brown Webber, careful consideration has been given to the impact of any new buildings on the setting of listed buildings in terms of scale, height, alignment and use of materials. The style of the Sixth Form Centre would continue the vernacular theme of the existing buildings and pick-up on detailing of adjacent buildings.
If approval is granted, it is hoped that development can start as soon as possible and that the building will be completed by January 2019.
The previously approved proposal for a Boathouse was to remove nine buildings/structures within the ‘old quarry’ area, and to replace them with one building for use as storage, a workshop, a fitness area and an archery centre, and a separate portacabin to accommodate a WC block with associated buried septic tank. The revised application looks to incorporate the toilets into the main building, together with male, female and disabled changing facilities. A double-storey indoor climbing wall has now been included and a balcony has been added, cantilevered towards the river, which is accessed from the ergo training area that will double up as a function room with an adjacent kitchenette.
For many years the Boat Club has worked out of some now very dated buildings in the old quarry, which have developed piecemeal over many years. Not only is there poor and inadequate space for boat storage, the areas for off-water training are not fit for purpose and there are no toilet and changing facilities. The riverside site is also used for activities relating to the Combined Cadet Force, Duke of Edinburgh scheme and Outdoor Education programme, including an old open air rifle/archery range together with stores for canoes, mountain bikes and camping equipment. So whilst the rowers will benefit significantly, it is so much more than a boathouse (!), and all pupils would benefit from the new facilities in one form or another.
The College will be looking to fund a proportion of the project but additional funds are required to transform the development into a truly world-class facility and bring the completion date closer. Further information about the It’s More Than A Boathouse Dinner taking place on Saturday 17 March, which will kick-start the fundraising campaign, can be found here.
