STAFF and students at Wolverley are well into planning for the new school to be built by 2014.

Rebuilding a whole school is a massive challenge but one we are all very excited about. The staff have already had two meetings to consider what we want from our new building.

To ensure the students’ voices are heard, one representative from each tutor group in year seven and eight was nominated by their peers to be part of a Student Change Team. The nominated students are: Kyle Hutchens, Hannah White, Ben Stanley, Becky Silveira, Alisha Harris, Bethany Bates and Brett Roberts (all year eight) and Jake Calcutt, Sam Gough, Hannah Luu, Evie Reynolds, Josh Brown and Bethany Bates (all year seven).

Since visiting a design centre in London, they have carried out a questionnaire with year seven and eight asking what they considered the most important aspects of a school. The results showed that the top three priorities are storage, toilets and learning spaces. They are presenting these ideas to their house and having further meetings with their design partner from London.

Ben Stanley writes: As one of the elected members of the team, I felt privileged to be allowed some input into the finished design of our new school.

On May 19, some of us were invited to Somerset House, in London, by the Sorell Foundation, a government organisation specialising in helping students create the schools of their dreams.

Here we joined pupils from other schools all over the country. The students were given notebooks, called the Little Book of Big Ideas, and were allowed to explore the gallery, which gave them some good ideas for possible designs for the school. They then met a specialist schools designer, Jamie, and discussed the type of facilities we would like to see in the new school.

The team then did a presentation and after lunch we all headed for the newly built BFI (British Film Institute) building to look at the modern architecture. We then went over the road to the National Film Theatre which is of a different architectural design and, again, were encouraged to look around inside, to give us ideas about interior design and different uses of space. To end our trip, all the schools went on the London Eye.

Shortly after our trip to London, the architects responsible for the design of the new school visited Wolverley to meet with the Change Team to discuss possible designs. This gave us the opportunity to put forward our ideas.

The architects started by asking what we liked and didn’t like about the current school, the aspects we would like to keep and those we would prefer to change. This provoked a lively debate and we were unanimous in deciding that one of the biggest assets of our school is its location.

The architects assured us that they would do their best to ensure the new building is sited to take full advantage of the open spaces and lovely views.

Different possibilities were discussed: the current school could be totally demolished and replaced or part of the existing school could be retained and incorporated into the new one. We were then shown a slideshow of artists’ impressions of various designs, illustrating both the exteriors and interiors of different possibilities. One design particularly caught our attention: nicknamed “Spider” because it looked as though the buildings were legs, branching off the main hub.

We looked at various designs and the architects patiently talked us through each one. The whole experience made us feel very privileged to be part of such an important decision. It also made us realise what a tremendous responsibility it is.

This was a sobering thought and we reflected on the seriousness of our task – but then cheered up as Mr Blackwall arrived, lugging bags full of squash and cookies. The architects thanked us for our ideas and promised to keep us up to date with any developments.

Evie Reynolds writes: On July 2, eight of the BSF Team met Tim Rudd, from Future Lab, a company that specialises in creating and installing hi-tech equipment for schools.

We were encouraged to put forward our ideas for the kind of electronic equipment we would like in the new school. One idea, which we all liked, was for a fountain that would automatically turn on when people walked past as we all – including Tim – agreed that the sight and sound of running water can be both soothing and inspirational.

Tim gave us some great ideas for various whizzy pieces of equipment for the classroom and we were suitably impressed by the range and versatility of the equipment available. It’s certainly exciting being in on “the ground floor” of the new school and meeting Tim helped us to appreciate the hug part technology plays in a school.

Mr Rose and Mr Blackwall, who organised the meeting, popped in from time to time and seemed pleased with our contributions – although they pointed out that they couldn’t guarantee the fountain!