enhance collaborative learning as well as independent studying.

And the school's headmistress Eleanor Kingsbury said the new fourth floor of the BHS' Dudley Butterfield Centre was used in a deliberate way to provide the year-seven students a sense of having a home base.

"Year seven is the beginning of our secondary school and it is a big adjustment for the students. Instead of having a homeroom, they have to move from class to class,'' Mrs. Kingsbury explained. "I wanted to have the three year-seven classes, which were spread all over the school, put on the same floor. Now they are in a cluster with a faculty room near by. They now have a sense of having a home base.'' Mrs. Kingsbury added that the new plan would increase interdisciplinary and collaborative learning.

"If the students are near each other, then the chances of collaborative learning increase,'' she said.

The addition to the Centre -- which was built in 1990 -- included four new classrooms and a study hall.

And Mrs. Kingsbury said the additional space would also help the student's with their independent studying. "I wanted a study hall for the students and the new area has one that will hold 45 students at any given time,'' she explained. "Study hall is not a time for collaborative learning. I want them to know what it is like to be independently productive. To know what it is like to sit somewhere quietly and work.'' Mrs. Kingsbury said she was very pleased with how the girls were adapting to the new study hall concept and noted that the hall was open to any secondary student after school.

"I don't think other schools have this study hall concept,'' she added.

The addition, which was ready for occupation the third week in October, also houses the head of the Maths Department who hosts "maths surgeries' in his new surroundings.

"If you feel that you have an ailment in math, then you go there for the cure,'' Mrs. Kingsbury explained. "That runs from 3 to 3.45 p.m. next to the study hall.

"We used all of this new area to enhance programmes for learning. Any construction at the school is done to enhance learning.'' Construction of the new fourth floor took place in what was the roof of the old three-story Dudley Butterfield Centre. "The building was built so that an additional fourth floor could be added,'' she said. "The roof on the third floor was actually a floor. The temporary roof was taken off and the floor added.'' EXPANDING THEIR KNOWLEDGE -- BHS year-nine students listen to teacher Jenny Tilson in one of the new classrooms in the school's latest addition.