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Grey Coat Hospital School |
Town Hall gives green light to next wave of school revamps
As £152m plan gets the go-ahead, education chiefs search for ways to minimise disruption
THE countdown until the bulldozers move in on three secondary schools has begun after planning chiefs rubber stamped landmark proposals that have been hailed as the biggest boost to education in the borough since the 1950s.
Grey Coat Hospital in Westminster, St Augustine’s in Kilburn and St George’s in Maida Vale became the second wave of schools in Westminster to benefit from the government’s £152 million Building Schools for the Future Programme.
Headteachers, governors and parents packed Westminster City Hall on Tuesday evening to hear the plans signed off – the end of months of painstaking negotiation and design headaches owing to the cramped sites the builders will have to work on.
Timetables are now being finalised to keep classroom disruption to a minimum, with work due to be completed in time for the beginning of the school year in September 2011.
At St George’s School, in Lanark Road, pupils will benefit from a new rooftop playground – a godsend for teachers who have long complained about the size of the current facilities, making break time a “nightmare”.
The playground had sparked health and safety fears among parents, but planners were assured that two-metre high walls and overhead netting would tackle the threat.
The three-storey extension will also include new classrooms, an indoor sports hall, changing facilities and a dining room.
Headteacher Martin Tissot said: “The playground at the moment is too small. We can barely fit everyone in, and it makes break time a nightmare for teachers trying to control the kids. All in all this building will help the school move forward. Applications are up 20 per cent on last year and when this work is finished we will be in a very good position.”
At Grey Coat Hospital School in Horseferry Road planners had to work out how to protect the grade-II listed 17th century core of the main school building from damage.
The former workhouse, described as a “rare piece of history”, dates back to 1698 and has already been scarred from bomb damage sustained in the Second World War.
The oldest features – the staircase and stone flag flooring – will largely be unaffected by the work, which will include a new five-storey block to provide state-of-the-art facilities for drama, music and film studies.
But a historic plane tree and part of the school’s boundary wall could not be spared – both of which will fall victim to the wrecking ball.
Headteacher Rachel Allard said: “We are delighted with the decision. Now we can get rid of the temporary huts that have been mucking up our PE space. The new block is going to be outstanding for students. It is a shame about the plane tree but it will be worth it.”
At the edge of the borough St Augustine’s High School got the green light to build a new science block and off-site a community sports hall.
The work which will eventually transform all ten of the borough’s secondary schools will be overseen by contractors Bouygyes Partnership for Education and Community who were appointed in the summer of 2007.
Work has already begun at the first wave of schools: St Marylebone, Pimlico Academy and Westminster City. |
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