The main building is confined to the plateau and so planners have had to extend to three storeys in order to accommodate all the pupils.
The plan of the site shows the small amount of playground area fitted in around the buildings. The photos all show older pupils standing around or sitting and engaged in discussion, which is not what eleven-year-olds (the first intake) at school do in their free time. They also bring out the barrier of the bank separating this from the minimal formal sports facilities.
The separate sports hall is ‘an 18m x 33m, 4 badminton court hall, and can be operated independently from the school to benefit community use’. However, this is below the minimum size recommended by Sport England.
The site is contained within four intersecting roads, but much of the land of the previous Royal School for the Deaf it includes is unavailable for the new school. The plan shows previous residential accommodation in houses dotted around the exterior which are excluded, as is a Hydrotherapy Pool and Gym Complex run independently although it is in KCC’s ownership. There is also a wooded area, part of the site which is part of the Margate Conservation Area and so unusable for the project, all of which eat away the space available.
The northern or lower part of the site comprises a single U16 size football pitch and a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA).
This is grandly spelled out as:
The overall sports provision within the site will provide (as a minimum) the following: · 1 Full Size Under 16s Grass Football Pitch · 1 Mini Rugby / Practice Pitch (on football pitch) · 1 Mini Soccer Asphalt Pitch (within MUGA) · 2 Full Netball Courts (within MUGA) · 2 Five a Side Football Pitches (within MUGA) · 2 Full Basketball Pitches (within MUGA) · 3. Full Tennis Courts (within MUGA) - There is also be further capacity within the playing field /pitch to provide summer sports pitch layouts such as rounders, softball and athletic field sports.
Although this sounds quite expansive, the MUGA can only offer a small selection of activities at one time. The exciting further capacity to provide summer sports pitch layouts such as rounders, softball and athletic field sports simply refers to the two pitches being reconfigured.
The solution to easing this very cramped outdoor provision is also contained in a footnote on the Plan: ‘Local Public Dane Park Playing Fields directly adjacent to school could provide additional Off-Site formal sports pitches, subject to agreements and liaison’, 'could' being the operative word, with all the constraints that brings, although the demand is likely to be extensive.
Footnote: I have been trying through FOI to obtain correspondence held by KCC about this matter since February, when I was falsely told that KCC did not hold any information on the matter. I tried again on 24th June, but have been unable to extract a positive response at the time of writing this article.
