As part of a long-term, school-wide initiative to develop our students’ cultural capital, we are going to be giving each of the spaces in our school an identity linked to a significant person. Each department has been asked to select people who represent their subjects, blending historical and contemporary figures and seeking to achieve a balance gender and ethnicity. The selection process in each department included staff and student input which generated some heated debates at the end of last term. Across the whole list we’re also intending to make sure it represents LGBT and disability role-models so there might be some final tweaking to be done. We also have one final whole-school consultation to do to name the Main Hall. One person to represent everything we’re trying to achieve – it’s a big call!
Inside and outside each room there will be a simple prominent display highlighting the person’s contribution to the disciplines they are associated with. Students will encounter these people as they move around the school; they will become part of the fabric of the building and the backdrop to their learning. Since many of the people chosen will seem fairly obscure at first, students will have cause to stop and think about who they are and teachers will have lots of talking points.
Collectively, the people we have selected symbolise many of the values and attitudes we want our students to adopt around academic learning or striving for excellence or making a difference to society in some way.
So – here is the list so far. A work in progress but now with every department represented – updated from the list first posted in August.
| Name | Room | Faculty / Dept |
| Albert Einstein | SC1 | Science |
| Edwin Hubble | SC2 | Science |
| Rosalind Franklin | SC3 | Science |
| Gregor Mendel | SC4 | Science |
| Marie Curie | SC5 | Science |
| Isaac Newton | SC6 | Science |
| Charles Darwin | SC7 | Science |
| Elizabeth Loftus | SC8 | Science |
| Stephen Hawking | SC9 | Science |
| Srinivasa Ramanujan | MA1 | Maths |
| Leonhard Euler | MA2 | Maths |
| Hypatia | MA3 | Maths |
| Emmy Noether | MA4 | Maths |
| Alan Turing | MA5 | Maths |
| René Descartes | MA6 | Maths |
| Maryam Mirzakhani | MA7 | Maths |
| Sophie Germain | MA8 | Maths |
| Pythagoras | Maths Office | Maths |
| Abraham Maslow | Nurture | Student Support |
| William Shakespeare | Office | English |
| George Orwell | EN1 | English |
| Chinua Achebe | EN2 | English |
| Orhan Pamuk | EN3 | English |
| J.K. Rowling | EN4 | English |
| Carol Ann Duffy | EN5 | English |
| Kazuo Ishiguro | EN6 | English |
| Mary Shelley | EN7 | English |
| Sylvia Plath | EN8 | English |
| Maya Angelou | EN9 | English |
| Karl Marx | Hu1 | Humanities |
| Margaret Ann Bulkley | Hu2 | Humanities |
| Oscar Romero | Hu3 | Humanities |
| Ibn Khaldun | Hu4 | Humanities |
| Doreen Massey | Hu5 | Humanities |
| David Attenborough | Hu6 | Humanities |
| Patricia Hill Collins | Hu7 | Humanities |
| CLR James | Hu8 | Humanities |
| Tim Berners-Lee | ICT1 | ICT |
| Steve Jobs | ICT2 | ICT |
| Shigeru Miyamoto | ICT3 | ICT |
| Laurie Anderson | ICT4 | ICT |
| John Maynard Keynes | BS1 | Business and Economics |
| Igor Ansoff | BS2 | Business and Economics |
| Deborah Meaden | BEC (was BS2) | Business and Economics |
| Edward de Bono | BEC1 | Business and Economics |
| Leonard Bernstein | MU1 | Music |
| Marin Alsop | MU2 | Music |
| Miles Davis | MU3 | Music |
| Edward Elgar | MU4 | Music |
| David Bowie | MU5 | Music |
| Esperanza Spalding | MU6 | Music |
| Jimi Hendrix | Studio | Music |
| Evelyn Glennie | PR1 | Music |
| Leon Goosens | PR2 | Music |
| Johann Quantz | PR3 | Music |
| Nicola Benedetti | PR4 | Music |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | PR5 | Music |
| John Cage | PR6 Quiet room | Music |
| Wilmer Wise | PR7 | Music |
| John Paul Jones | PR8 | Music |
| Jamie Oliver | Catering | ADT |
| Phyllida Barlow | AR1 | ADT |
| Yinka Shonibare | AR2 | ADT |
| Arthur Rimbaud | AR3 | ADT |
| Walter Sickert | AR4 | ADT |
| Alexander McQueen | AR5 | ADT |
| Susan Kare | AR6 | ADT |
| Edward Kienholz | AR7 | ADT |
| Zaha Hadid | AR8 | ADT |
| Che Guevara | MFL1 | MFL |
| Frantz Fanon | MFL2 | MFL |
| Mariela Castro | MFL3 | MFL |
| Simone Veil | MFL4 | MFL |
| Coco Chanel | MFL5 | MFL |
| Frida Kahlo | Office | MFL |
| Maria Montessori | WellBeing Centre | Student Support |
| Louis Braille | Literacy Room | Student Support |
| Hellen Keller | Intervention Room | Student Support |
| Sigmund Freud | Counselling Room | Student Support |
| Nelson Mandela | Office | Student Support |
| Thomas Coram | Staff Base | Student Support |
| Ira Aldridge | Dr1 | Drama |
| Dame Judi Dench | Dr2 | Drama |
| Stanislavsky | Dr3 | Drama |
| Mary Wollsteonecraft | Library | Library |
| Pierre De Coubertin | PE Office | PE |
| Sports Hall | Sachin Tendulker | PE |
| Bobby Moore | MUGA 1 | PE |
| Ellie Simmonds | Swimming Pool | PE |
| Mo Farah | Athletics Track | PE |
| Muhammad Ali | Fitness Suite | PE |
| Nadia Comãneci | Gymnasium | PE |
| Michael Jordan | MUGA 3&4 | PE |
| Laura Trott | MUGA 2 | PE |
| Wembley | Changing Room 1 | PE |
| Wimbledon | Changing Room 2 | PE |
| Lords | Changing Room 3 | PE |
| Twickenham | Changing Room 4 | PE |
teacherhead 
All very interesting but how does this improve the student learning outcomes?
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Indirectly. It’s part of making the school more learning focused; it’s largely symbolic ethos-reinforcement. Also, a bit of intellectual fun.
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Brilliant idea – I can only assume the ‘how does this improve student learning outcomes’ comment is tongue in cheek, Back in the day, when faced with trying to create a new feel and culture to a very old building, we created some large,hanging banners with a montage of famous faces that also tried to create the cultural balance you have done here ( and yours, incidentally, is ,I think, a much better idea than ours was!).
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Freud and counselling might lead to some interesting outcomes…
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John Cage (quiet room) – I laughed so hard!
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Really interesting idea; good that it’s so inclusive. I imagine a lot of debate behind each of the choices. Our music department do this. We have a Dave Grohl guitar cupboard – I’ve never been able to decide if having a cupboard named after you is an accolade.
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I really like it – and think the debate is all part of the learning process, for the whole school.
On a smaller scale, the school where I was the head merged with its sister school after I’d left and they decided to rename/rebrand the Houses across the new school. Both were girls’ schools, despite which the original Houses were named after notable local men (eg Bunyan – this was in Bedford). They decided to choose six women who had achieved success in a range of areas over time – Rosalind Franklin was one of them. (The others are Hepburn, Chanel, Austen, Nightingale and Parks). Again, I think the debate must have been fascinating!
Very best wishes for the start of term, Tom.
(PS Think Helen Keller only as one ‘l’ in Helen?)
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PE department should look up Walter Tull. a looked after child from London. One of the first black footballers to play in league and first Black officer in army. He played for Tottenham though – I don’t understand football rivalries so not sure if that’s a deal breaker or not.
Is the hall where they take exams? Just trying to think of an item of knowledge that’s needed by all and hard to remember so could do with constant repetition. The quadratic formula? Bit of a mouthful…’assembly today will take place in x=-b etc’
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Fabulous Tom! So uplifting! We miss you in Essex!
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