Reinstatement Project Update - Sept '25

On behalf of the School’s Governors we want to update everyone on the positive progress being made within those areas of the school currently closed for reinstatement. Throughout this journey, our community’s Resilience has been evident in adapting to temporary arrangements, our Ambition in striving for the highest standards, and our Kindness in supporting one another. These values continue to guide us as we work towards a brighter future for all our pupils.

  We acknowledge that the frequency of these progress updates has not been as regular as we would have liked or that you require. This has been in large part due to uncertainty over funding required to complete all works. We thank you for your patience and cooperation with the temporary teaching accommodation and measures that continue to be in place.

  The School, Stepnell, and the Project Team have been working tirelessly with the DfE over the last few months, and we are delighted to announce that the funding required to finish the reinstatement works has now been secured. The arrangements for funding were formally signed on 12th September.

  Our focus now turns to the completion of the works, ready for reoccupation by pupils and staff. As many will be aware, the scope, costs and time required to address the condition of the school buildings has become far greater than anyone had anticipated and could only be established fully following long periods of extensive opening up works, surveys and temporary works to the existing building fabric.

  Over the past 12 months, Stepnell as the Principal Contractor, has been working incredibly hard to quantify these essential works whilst at the same time, reinstating as much of the school as possible to reduce the impact on programme. This has been challenging at times as we navigate through the project whilst still trying to operate a live school with minimal disruption to learning. This hard work has resulted in notable progress to certain areas of the school building, whilst addressing the more challenging parts in parallel. We hope the selection of progress photos attached to this letter demonstrates the results of that hard work and provides a glimpse of the quality of the spaces that students and staff will get to enjoy and enhance their educational experience once they are ready for full occupation.

  Now that funding is secured and the scope of essential works is defined with the Contractor we are all working hard towards a full re-occupation of the closed buildings by early Summer 2026, ready for the next full academic year starting in September 2026. Should any parts of the building be ready sooner, we will also work with Stepnell on a phased reoccupation, however this must be done safely without further disruption to learning. Any updates and plans to partial reoccupation will be shared once we can be certain this is achievable.

  We continue to work closely with Stepnell to ensure that their contractual end date is met and we will provide further newsletter updates to you so you can be reassured of the progress being made and see photos of the refurbished spaces as they move towards completion.

  In addition to these works you will be aware of the toilet upgrades that are currently being undertaken to address the poor condition of the old facilities in the live school which are being funded separately through a S106 grant. We are pleased to confirm that these will be complete and re-opened during this term for pupils.

  Thank you once again for your patience, understanding, support and resilience during what has been a very challenging time for you, your children and our staff. We hope that you’ll agree from the images attached that the space we will all inherit will provide a much better environment to bring out the very best in the pupils’ potential.