The buzz of a full school of happy children has been replaced by the sound of purposeful banging, drilling and sawing, as our builders work hard on some fantastic developments to the building. (All overseen with proper social distancing, health and safety, hygiene and safeguarding of course).

Parents will know from our letters, that we have assessed our maintenance and building programme and are currently continuing only with essential remedial works and with building development specifically funded by donations and grants for this sole purpose (this is ring fenced funding and cannot be spent on anything else).

Great progress has been made as you can see from the photos above including:

• New Class 4/5 (situated off the main hall) – the new roof is on, and the room is rendered and getting it’s plaster coat ready for decorating next week
• Handwork/Art Room
  – a new soundproof plaster wall now separates Class 6/7 and the Handwork Art Room, improving acoustics for both rooms (this was the previous glass partition doors)
  – we have created a new inner lobby giving separate doorways to the two rooms (no more walking through classrooms to get in and out)
  – the hanging ceiling has been removed and the space opened to full height, allowing the students to work once again under the beautiful original structure of our Victorian building
  – the old electric fuse box for the annex has been replaced with new, with a new main cable run
  – the room will also be getting a ‘wet-area’ with large belfast sink and a wall-length built in cupboard, creating more circulation space in the room for students to work
• The Upper School ‘common room’ in the annex foyer (previously a partitioned off area) is now a proper room with walls, and a window at the front to allow for natural light to shine through. In the future this room will also be used as a Music Practice/Instrument Lesson Room and timetabled slots will ensure that the Upper School students will still have their space for study, relaxing and time to recoup.
• The central roof above Sun Garden has been replaced and is nearly complete, with the builders on the finishing touches
• Kindergarten will also be having hot water hand-wash sinks in the classrooms and 24 new solid wood chairs. We will also have 4 new Tables for Wraparound Care for activities indoors and outdoors.  This is thanks to our successful application last week for a COVID-19 response grant
• Extensive repointing of the building walls has been completed in many areas of the School – making sure the building is watertight
• Main Playground Wall – the beautiful stone wall which runs along the mound has been restored and creates a lovely background to our School garden

Phew! We cannot wait to be able to share the developments with you, and even more so, to see the children filling the space once again with love and laughter.