Visitors are constantly astonished by how much we fit behind the imposing cream walls of our Victorian buildings.
In our basements you find a full suite of Science Laboratories, all refitted in the past decade, to allow for top-class teaching and learning in those subjects. Our ICT suite continues the STEM theme, while our onsite gym is forever busy with fencing classes, karate club and indoor rowing, to name just a few activities.
On the 131-133 ground floor we come to our two Dining Rooms and Drama Studio, while in 125-126 we have the classrooms for our two youngest cohorts. The 126 ground floor also leads out to a courtyard garden. In both buildings the first floor is the location for our Libraries and two Halls, where assemblies, concerts and other events take place.
The remaining floors are taken up with classrooms of a range of sizes – our maximum capacity is around 25, and many rooms are smaller, serving as the perfect venues for seminar-style teaching at A Level. The Sixth Form enjoy a range of facilities, including both study and communal areas, while our two roof terraces are the preserve of Years 7 and 8.
Finally, in the top floors of 131-133 you find our DT Laboratory and Art Studio, the latter used by girls from Year 6 upwards. These havens of creativity are light and airy, giving the girls a wonderful space in which to work.
All our buildings are linked by interconnecting corridors and rooms, as well as our staircases, initially daunting to newcomers, but beloved by pupils. Whether anyone ever truly knows their way around is a reasonable question; departing Upper Sixth pupils will proudly confess to still needing more than one attempt to find certain rooms. However these idiosyncrasies are one of the elements that makes Queen’s Gate what it is – a community that is tightly integrated through shared experience, passing each other on the landings, wondering how to get from one location to the next, laughing and smiling as we go.
