With the new school year set to start tomorrow for some students, Doha College staff are preparing to unveil the newest addition to the school – a purpose-built extension which will cater for some 250 students and offer an improved facility for sixth formers.
Doha College principal, Mark Leppard explained that the facility which has been built by the Rumeilah Group, will officially be opened after Ramadan, but will be in use from the first week of term, providing students with a large selection of new facilities.
Assistant principal, Teresa Woulfe, who has been leading the project from the school’s side, said: “The new extension will add an extra dimension to an already outstanding school.
“It has been a lot of hard work to deliver the project on time but the extra work has been worth it to see the response from students and staff,” she added.
The two-storey building will house classrooms for geography, history, drama and other subjects for the whole school, as well as an IT suite featuring around 30 computers.
The building also has a large hall at one end, which will be able to seat around 400 people and will eventually be the location for drama and musical performances as well as other large gatherings.
Leppard, who is understandably excited about the impending extra classroom space the school will now possess, explained that classroom usage will now be reduced from around 95% to around 80%, meaning that should anything happen to prevent people from using a certain room, the school will now have no difficulty in finding another space to use.
But perhaps the biggest benefit of the new building is the resultant upgrade of sixth form facilities – something which the school has long needed.
With the entire top floor of the new build dedicated to sixth form classrooms, as well as reading and study rooms, another equally well-equipped IT suite and offices for sixth form support staff, sixth form students will finally be receiving the “facility they deserve,” according to Leppard.
“This is the biggest project in the school’s history,” said Leppard, who is currently entering his fourteenth year at the college, “and it is the result of a promise made some seven years ago to build a single storey, one subject block, which has now grown into this two-storey extension.”
And with the capability to hold some 250 students, the extension relieves a great deal from pressure from the original building, meaning that the school will feel less crowded and certain rooms have been able to be relocated to improve its layout.
Along with other improvements to the school canteen, nursing facilities and other areas, the new extension is certainly creating a buzz around the school already, and when it starts to be used, Leppard hopes it will “kick-start the academic year.”
“You would struggle to find a sixth form facility as good as this either nationally or internationally,” he claimed, looking forward to its official opening some time in October and adding “we are an extremely strong academic school, and the addition of this building will enhance the whole educational experience for our children.”
http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=311961&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16
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