Bohemia Village Voice  Bohemia Village Voice

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St Pauls head keen to share schools facilities

Pat Lock in the performing arts hall.

Pat Lock in the performing arts hall.

In recent months the Voice has highlighted what it believed to be a lack of local facilities for youth and other community groups. The response to this appeal has been tremendous, with first the games area at White Rock Gardens and then the YMCA emerging as excellent local venues for young people. Now St Paul’s School has thrown its hat in the ring.
 The school’s headteacher, Pat Lock, who took up her post at the beginning of this year, invited us to come and talk to her about the playing field and the performing arts hall, both of which she is keen should be used outside of school hours by anyone who needs them.
 The playing field is a substantial, roughly triangular green space that is easily accessed from Amherst Road. Mrs Lock told us, ‘We’ve currently got an agreement with Horntye Park where local cricket clubs use the field at the weekends, but aside from that it’s hardly used outside school hours. It’s a big space that’s ideal for all field sports. There are no toilets or kitchen facilities, but we’ve got plans to add those. In the meantime, for a small addition to the basic fee, the caretaker can be on hand to unlock the performing arts hall for anyone using the field. There’s toilets, including a disabled toilet, and a kitchenette there.’
The performing arts hall is the newest of the school’s buildings. The well-lit main hall includes a sprung floor and mirrors running the whole length of one side. There are also two dressing rooms as well as storage space available for sports and other equipment. ‘We run an after-school karate club in here at the moment,’ says Mrs Lock, ‘but it’s ideal for dance classes and aerobics. Active Hastings used it for a few weeks for the street-dancing classes they run at White Rock, when the theatre was temporarily unavailable. But it would also be a good space for choirs or music groups who need a space to rehearse, or for drama groups. We are planning to put up curtains that will pull across the mirrored wall, and then the hall could even be used for meetings. Scout or Girl Guide groups are another possibility, though we’ve ruled out children’s parties. The hall’s size and mirrors also make it unsuitable for ball games.’
 The school is currently able to provide parking space on the school playground for groups using either the playing field or the performing arts hall, but there are plans to provide pedestrian access and a new car park at one end of the playing field once funds allow. This would have the double benefit of offering the school’s staff their own car park and easing the weekday burden on Horntye Road, where the staff are forced to park at the moment. ‘We’d also like to build a separate block for people using the playing field, comprising toilets and kitchenette, but we don’t have the funds at the moment. If we can get some money coming in from hiring the field or the hall, it’ll go towards those projects.’
  Mrs Lock is keen that the local community should get first use of the facilities, and thus there are two rates for groups who want to book either the hall or the playing field – one is a commercial rate, while the other is a reduced fee for community groups, for whom, for example, the playing field is available at £8 an hour. The new toilet block and car park will not come cheap, however, and the school would therefore welcome any contributions from local business towards the costs involved. Mrs Lock emphasises, ‘Any improvements we can make will be not only for our own kids, but the whole community. I feel it’s about time schools reached out to the local community. We want families and the community to support us, but we need to reciprocate.’

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