Educational Establishments


Cardinal Wiseman School Ground


The Cardinal Wiseman School at Greenford in the London Borough of Ealing is voluntary-aided and non- selective. It is a fine and modern comprehensive secondary school, first established in 1959. Neville Johnson went there at half term to talk to its Site and Facilities Manager, Charlie Pettifer, to find out what sets it apart in these days of shrinking school playing fields


peppercorn N


ot many will readily be familiar with what BSF means in educational jargon. It’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’, a Government funding scheme


essentially to upgrade or replace outdated school buildings. It kicked off in the wave of Millennium good intent and ceased existence in 2010 under the then Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove. Cardinal Wiseman, one of the last schools to benefit from the scheme, got a £24 million facelift because of it and, today, looks every bit 21st century. However, one thing was still missing for the 2000 pupils there, and conspicuously so. Charlie Pettifer, who looks after all the


school’s facilities, welcomes me to the impressive looking school. The absence of term-time hurly burly makes talking easy and


92 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2015


he describes enthusiastically what has since filled this gap in its infrastructure. He’s been in charge of things for twenty years and has seen huge changes to how the school looks and is proudest of what he calls “the icing on the cake”. He explains what he means. “Sport and outdoor exercise generally has


always been far from ideal here. The youngsters never had a playing field to call their own, but boy have we got one now,” said Charlie. “For all outdoor games activities, they’d


have to troop half a mile down the Greenford Road towards Southall to use Council park space there. There have even been times when they couldn’t get on these because travellers had made a temporary home there. It was an abiding frustration for all of us. “Something that the school has always


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140