Work starts in July 2007 on Cranleigh's new £9.5 million Academic Centre.  The project is due for completion in time for the Michaelmas Term 2008.

 

The Centre will accommodate three major faculties: Science, Maths and Modern Languages.  In recent years these subject areas have witnessed a sharp fall in uptake nationwide, and yet  each plays a vital role in the curriculum as a whole.  It is interesting to note, for example, that nearly half of today's undergraduates studying Science, Maths or Modern Languages come from independent school Sixth Forms.  Cranleigh believes that it is essential for the independent sector to support these three crucial subject areas. 

   

Science at Cranleigh is currently being taught in two separate locations: Physics in a 1970s building erected on the old North Pitch; and Biology & Chemistry in a complex of buildings  which has evolved rather haphazardly over several decades.

 

The existing Physics building will be demolished and the new Academic Centre will be built on the same site, linking into the existing Emms Block which currently houses Maths.  The Centre will also provide some much-needed extra space into which Modern Languages can expand.  The current accommodation for Modern Languages (the Rhodes Block) will be made available to the Design & Technology Department as part of the plans for a new Art & Design School (see future).

 

One of the most striking features of the Centre will be the huge covered court at its heart (illustrated in the third photo on the right, which shows the court without the roof in place).  A lecture theatre will fill about a third of this court but the remaining two thirds will provide an inspirational space for meetings, quiet reading and reflection.