Silence Won't Fall When the Question is Asked

Despite the many 'SILENCE, EXAM IN PROGRESS’ signs put up around the Hall, the Trash has learned that students sitting their final maths GCSE last Thursday had to cope with the low, unmistakeable dulcet tones of the construction site mere metres away.

Yes, even though the various sites around school seemingly shut down during the May exams, they have started up again, in spite of students from multiple years still sitting exams. The Trash is unsure how many exams will or have been effected.

It is not unprecedented for building work on a school site to stop whilst exams are taking place. In a case study on their website, it was the very same Wates who reported during the construction of a new block in the nearby South Hampstead High School “Through frequent and open dialogue, it was agreed that the Wates team would cease all site activity during exam periods to avoid potential noise disruption.” If such a ‘dialogue’ was opened between Hampstead and the construction firm, it has not been as far-reaching so as to cover ‘all activity’ during the exam season.

This comes after the school returned the day to its original 2-2-1 lesson blocking schedule. Rumours are that this came after complaints that students moving between periods four and five were too noisy and disruptive. Now students will have to sit afternoon exams later in the day than previously billed, and possibly through the completely non-disruptive progression of students leaving at the end of the day. All this pales into insignificance when you factor in the noise produced by two adjacent ‘active’ building sites.