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Buildings and classrooms
The two buildings and respective classrooms had distinct looks and feels. The Gunningschool stood in a quiet, residential area. The school shared the grounds and the gymnasium with a special education secondary school. The school grounds were fenced, and only opened when school started or ended. There was one large playground with a sandbox. The school installed a slide at the end of the 2005-2006 year. Steps led up to the main entrance, providing a podium overlooking the playground. The building had two levels: the younger children were upstairs, and the older pupils downstairs. Downstairs was also a larger, open area known as de ruimte (the space) that functioned as an auditorium. Staff members not responsible for teaching a form had their own small offices throughout the school.
The Kantlijn’s original building was renovated in my fieldwork year. The temporary building was located at ten minutes walking distance from the original location, in the same neighbourhood. Both buildings were just off busy streets, bustling with traffic and shoppers. The temporary building was an old-fashioned school building, with a small playground at the back of the school. The renovated building, attached to a public library, gymnasium, and after-school facilities, had two unfenced playgrounds. The largest playground had football nets, a sandbox and a playhouse. In both buildings, older years were upstairs. The new building had several small spaces, where pupils could work in groups outside the classroom. Non-teaching staff members also had their own offices throughout the school.
At the Gunningschool, the 8th form teacher Thomas’s classroom had clearly been in use for a while. Every inch was occupied and many items in the room appeared to have been there for some time. The posters’ duct tape was coming off the walls; bookshelves had boxes with never used booklets; the linoleum was worn-out; at the back of the room was a table with four stacked computers, of which not even Thomas knew whether they worked; dusty, wooden games rested on top of the cupboards; one of the TL-lights was broken; and along one side of the room were stacks of old paper. The tables and chairs were old and used, and none were alike. Some were light brown, others almost black. Each table had a sticker with the pupils’ name on it. Chairs were numbered, and lists with corresponding names hung on both sides of the room. Pupils always found their own chair and refused to use someone else’s. Each table had two plastic drawers that held pens, paper and other small things. Next to the pupils’ own tables, two tables stood at the back where they could sit to correct their work. There was another corner with three functioning computers. At the front was a washbasin, and at the back an aquarium. Girls and boys did not sit together. Tables were grouped in three rows of two tables each, facing the three-pane blackboard. One pane had been made into a week schedule with red tape, and Thomas wrote down homework assignments here. On the back wall were two large, hanging cupboards where all text and notebooks were kept. Nine printouts hung on the inner windows, featuring the ‘golden rules’ of the Gunningschool. A sign by the blackboard instructed pupils to ‘stop the bullying’. There were two series of self-made artwork.
At the Kantlijn,[7] tables were grouped in sets of five or six and these groups were positioned around the teacher’s central desk. Boys and girls sat together and pupils faced each other rather than the teacher. At the back was a corner with a bookcase and pillows on the floor. The room had a small blackboard upon which pupils drew and teacher Luck seldom wrote. The room had a stereo set, a television with DVD-player and one computer. Around the blackboard on the wall was a drawing of two candles and a Christmas wreath. There were three large frames with photomontages of Luck’s former pupils. One wall featured professional photographs of this year’s pupils, framed in yellow cardboard. Pupils used the walls near to their tables to put up notes. Tables did not belong to pupils, instead pupils ‘owned’ their drawers.