South Yorkshire Times, July 14, 1951
School in Miniature
Conisbrough Boys make Model of new Neighbour
The boys and girls of Conisbrough Modern School, who look ruefully at what was once their playing field and what is now a building site for the new “Harry Gomersall” Infants’ school, can at least see what the new school is going to look like. The fourth forms of the boys’ department have built a scale model of the school, equipped it with furniture, painted it and planted” trees” within its grounds
The finished model, about four feed wide, is the result of two terms’ hard work by the boys. Prompted by their senior mathematics master, Mr Geoffrey Ingham, of Mexborough, they have done six months’ constructive handicraft – and six months’ novel mathematics in working out scales, areas and plans.
Tiny Trees
The school is a low building, with only six classrooms, although there is space for two open-air classes. The whole area covers two and a half acres, of which the grounds cover one and a half acres. Only one eleventh of the whole area will be school buildings, two elevenths’ playgrounds, and the rest ordinary grounds. A surprising fact is that the new infants’ school, which faces Garden Road, will be bigger than the Modern School opposite.
The model, exactly to scale, is in hard-board and straw-board. Cellotape makes the windows, and everything s complete to the last detail. There are the different kinds of trees indicated, a sandpit, little entrance gates and barriers, a rustic archway with creepers on it, ceiling lights, ventilation pipes, even drain pipes. The whole is finished in two shades of blue, with a cream interior, and with the asphalt playground painted a grey-black.
For better exhibition the roof can be lifted off in sections – to reveal a complete lay-out furnished classrooms. Little desks and seats have been made, and stuck to a cardboard base so that they can be interchanged more easily. Even the boilers and chimney from the canteen have been included.
Subsidence
An interesting feature, too, is the way in which subsidence, the biggest fault with the modern school, is being fought in the new neighbour. The school has been split into seven sections, each section separated from the next by a double wall with cavity between.
In this way, if there is subsidence, one part of the school can sink or slide away without pulling the rest, or causing uneven surfaces,
Now that the model is finished there is another problem – what to do with it. It is still in Mr. Ingham’s room, but it may eventually go on show in neighbouring exhibitions. It is certainly worth seeing.