How much time will we have to get from one class to another? Will we be allowed to leave the premises for lunch? And will we have school sports houses by colours? That's what anxious fourth-year high school students asked as they recently toured CedarBridge Academy with principal Ernest Payette.

While their questions indicated that many of the students were still oblivious to the significance of the new school, both CedarBridge and their place in the Island's history cannot be underestimated.

For not only will they be the first students to attend the Island's first senior secondary school in September, they will also be the beneficiaries of a multi-million-dollar, "state-of-the-art'' facility which is the pinnacle of the Island's education reform.

And although the students will continue to study under a modified Bermuda Secondary School Certificate (BSSC) programme, they saw and heard -- during a 90-minute tour around the 243,000-square-foot property -- that they will have access to an unprecedented variety of courses and facilities.

In addition to the traditional art room for sculpting, drawing and painting, CedarBridge's design and technology programme will offer stain glass making, drafting, and high-tech communications technology courses.

The communications technology will include everything from advertising, to making of newspapers and magazines, to publishing brochures, colour advertisements to television commercials and television programmes.

After students carried out design work in special labs via computers, Mr.

Payette pointed out they will be able to polish it off in 3D studios and specialty rooms, including an editing studio, a dark room, and a print room.

"For example, instead of writing an essay in history, you can always do a documentary using pictures, words, stories, videotape and turn that into a mini-television programme and given the facility we have here, if you wanted to, you could broadcast it to every classroom in the school,'' he told the students.

Science labs at CedarBridge will be specifically designed for the subject.

All of the rooms, which are air-conditioned and contain venting to allow gases to leave the room and eyewash areas or full-body showers in case of accidents in the lab, will be connected to a central system for computers.

"So when you're working here in the science lab, you can actually connect to the library if you want to find some information,'' Mr. Payette explained.

"If you want to work on simulated programmes in physics or chemistry, you can learn how to do that as well. The programmes are staged which means they start you at the bottom and will work you to the top. You can start at any level you want so nobody has to worry about not knowing how to do something.'' For students more interested in the intricate parts of a motorcycle rather than an animal or atom, the transportation and technology area of the school should keep them busy.

In addition to small engine repairing, courses will be offered on the making of special parts and autobody repairs.

Students marvel at `state-of-the-art' school In fact, Mr. Payette took the students into a "state-of-the-art'' spray paint booth which will be used for spraying cars and bikes.

"Normally we don't try to do things in high school of this standard,'' he told the wide-eyed youngsters. "This is above the normal thing you will do in a high school. But because if you look at the needs on the Island in terms of keeping vehicles repaired and dealing with rusting, you can do this yourself.'' The Arts wing will be another area of the school where students will be exposed to much more than the norm.

In addition music, dance and drama, students will learn how to put together their own productions.

"Instead of just taking classes, you will start a production such as play or musical,'' Mr. Payette told them. "You're project will be based on your performance on that.'' "In a drama studio, you don't learn just the acting part,'' he added, "you have to learn how to do the sound, the lights, the choreography, how to set up the stage, how to make the backdrops.'' The Arts wing will also include a cosmetology room where the application of make-up, hairdressing, and other personal care will be taught.

In the Family Studies area, CedarBridge will initially offer basic cooking and nutrition courses.

But Mr. Payette said the school will eventually offer programmes in culinary arts for those who wish to become chefs or work in businesses where the ability to provide food products is important.

Between family studies kitchen areas and textiles area -- where students will learn everything from dressmaking to interior decorating and design -- there will be a computer-equipped room so that students can learn to design programmes such as menu making, family life, parenting, and how to run a household.

CedarBridge students will also learn how to run their own businesses via the entrepreneurial studies that will be taught in the business programme.

Mr. Payette said senior students in marketing and small business classes will gain experience by running the school's store which will sell CedarBridge Academy paraphernalia.

Noting that two business classrooms had been specifically designed for secretarial and office work, Mr. Payette added that he anticipated that a "couple of years from now'' CedarBridge would establish a link with businesses and charities which will allow students to work for them from the school.

"For example, the Red Cross, which relies on volunteers, can have a small office running out of a building like this with students doing the work,'' he explained. "So students can receive on-the-job training at school.'' Students, with permission, will also have access to businesses without leaving the school property.

Mr. Payette pointed out that this will be possible because each classroom will be connected to the school's information system via a panelling on the classroom wall.

The panel will contain a public announcement system, a digital clock connected to the central clock of the school and a phone system.

"So if you are working on a project and the teacher wants you to call down town to one of the stores, the teacher can give you a code and you can actually connect to any business or the Internet once you have proper access,'' Mr. Payette explained. "That will be always monitored of course.'' Trips to the main library downtown may also become less frequent.

Information from encyclopaedias and periodicals will be available via CDROM which CedarBridge's library will have.

Therefore, most of the books on the 55,000-volume library shelves will be literature for personal reading, classics, and novels.

There will also be rooms adjacent to library with computer stations so students can work in small groups for remedial or enrichment work.

In addition to the high-tech equipment at CedarBridge, every zone of the school will have its own drinking fountain, washrooms, and every student will have his or her own locker.

The north wing, which is the least developed, will also contain a double gymnasium which can accommodate a college-level basketball game or two high basketball games simultaneously.

With a capacity to accommodate some 200 students on bleachers, the gymnasium also has changing rooms which can hold 100 people, if necessary.

The north wing also has a fitness training room which students will have access to during and afterschool. It will also include a physiotherapy facility where senior students will take courses on treatment of injuries and rehabilitation.

"When you build a school if you want to do it right, you have to try and get something that is at least of value or interest to everybody,'' Mr. Payette told the group of students who were part of the recently-formed Health for Success student committee.

However, he reminded the students that many of the programmes will not be introduced until three years from now.

"Some things you can do next year, some of the things will take two to three years for the programmes to be implemented,'' he explained.

And while CedarBridge will be fully accessible to students, including those with physical disabilities, access to the facility will not be as easy for outsiders.

All of the school will be divided into zones with the ability to lock off each of the zones.

Hallways will have alarm systems and security systems, including panel lights and some visible and hidden cameras. Surveillance cameras will also be installed in rooms where there is "high-cost'' equipment.

"It is not there to monitor the students as much as it is to prevent someone from breaking in and stealing the equipment,'' Mr. Payette said.

"We're putting in more than $5 million worth of equipment in this school to deal with the curriculum, you don't want it stolen.'' Students will not be able to steal play time either.

Mr. Payette told the youngsters that recess will be a thing of the past.

With the scheduling of "block'' hours for classes, there will be no time for the traditional 15-minute morning breaks.

But students will be able to enjoy one of the three 45-minute lunch periods in the school's multi-purpose cafeteria where they can buy or bring their lunch.

"The computer will determine what lunch period you have,'' Mr. Payette said.

"There will be about 300 to 350 students at lunch each time. We will have to use things like the patios, the courtyards. On the rainy days we will have to make sure that there's another classroom or facility available for you to eat your lunch in.'' Students will also have about five minutes to move to their next class.

Most of the classes will be arranged in one area of the property in the morning and the other area in the afternoon to allow this.

Mr. Payette said: "If that does not work, then we will make sure students have sufficient time to get from one class to another.'' He assured students, some of whom were overwhelmed by the size of the property, that they will soon learn their way around the campus.

Orientation will be held prior to the beginning of classes on September 15, Mr. Payette added.

While students did not play a major role in selecting the school's name, he promised that they will have input in the naming of the school houses, the school paper, school year book and, if they wanted, their own school song.

"That's part of the reason why the group is here today,'' he told them. "You are the group that we are looking for to show some leadership among the students, to get some information back to them about what you think about the school and to get back to me about what you think is good and what you still have concerns about.

"Remember you're going into a system that is entirely new and is going to be changing over the next three to four years. But we have to start from where you're at and move toward where you want to go.

"You guys are moving into a system that is better than most.''