The centre has been named in honour of a great friend of the school and patron, Mrs Duckworth, who will formally open the building. Also in attendance will be the Lord-Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, James Saunders Watson, and the Right Honourable Stuart Andrew, MP newly elected representative for Daventry and Northants.
The new Centre marks an exciting point in Pitsford’s history. Over the last few years there has been year-on-year growth in numbers in the Sixth Form at Pitsford, which has been accompanied by the school steadily widening its curriculum, adding new subjects including Photography, Business Studies and Psychology.
The Sixth Form is bigger today than ever before in the school’s history, and the new Centre will provide state-of-the-art facilities to support this greater number of students and to give them an exciting and dynamic space in the heart of the school. In its design stage, the students were able to input their ideas, and the building reflects this with fantastic catering facilities, a wonderful social area, and university-style seminar spaces.
Although not formally opened until Friday, the students have already moved in and held a spooky Hallowe’en film night in the Centre, which was a very popular Sixth Form social.
Head of Pitsford School, Dr Craig Walker, said: "It is difficult for lots of schools to give their Sixth Formers some autonomy and their own space as more and more of them are cramped and crowded. But, at Pitsford we are lucky that we are situated in thirty acres beautiful parkland, and the Gill Duckworth Centre has been placed at its very centre, as the students who will use it are the heads of our school."
Alongside the new centre, the school has created a new Quad which links the Sixth Form to the refurbished Refectory.
Dr Walker noted: "In everything we do at Pitsford, we ask ourselves how can we put the child at the centre of things and this new build and Quad does just that. Exciting times!"