School Reinstatement Works Update - December 2025

December 2025

Dear Parents, Carers, Staff, Pupils & Students

School Reinstatement Works Update  

We are pleased to be able to provide parents and carers with an update on significant progress on plans to access our school buildings affected by reinstatement works. We want to share good news with you - further details and photos are provided below, and in summary:

• Our contractor, Stepnell, is able to return significant areas of the buildings back to school control at the end of this term.
• Over the Spring term we will carry out a phased move of subject areas that can be accommodated in the available areas.
• This includes moving the science department as a priority, which will mean pupils and students will have access to purpose-built labs with up-to-date facilities.
• We may need to plan a ‘moving day’ to help staff set up their teaching spaces; parents and carers will be given as much notice as possible of this date if required.
• Further areas of the buildings will be handed back up to the programme completion date of June 2026.

We recognise the disruption that the essential buildings closure has caused over several years. The resilience and patience of you as parents and carers, and of your children, in continuing to support the school over this period is greatly appreciated. Staff across the school have made incredible efforts to adapt to the circumstances, and they are excited to see progress and are looking forward to supporting your children in the reinstated classrooms and facilities. 

Background about the scale of the building reinstatement works 

Stepnell have been working with the School since August 2024 on the reinstatement of our school buildings following a period of school closure.  The reinstatement project has substantially grown since the contract was signed due to extensive damage caused to the building fabric and services as a result of asbestos removal works.  Further challenges in the condition of the buildings identified as the programme developed have added further items to the scope of works.  We have worked closely with the Department for Education to secure additional funding to address the increased scope to allow works to continue and to address critical needs as the reinstatement programme developed.  The increased scope of works meant that the original completion date of November 2025 was delayed to June 2026. Continuing to operate a live school alongside such an extensive and challenging project has been no mean feat and finally, after over two years of disruption we are reaching a milestone in this project.  Throughout the programme, Stepnell have recognised the importance of getting our pupils and staff back into these teaching spaces, and they have worked tirelessly to complete parts of their works earlier where possible. Their efforts and commitment mean that that there can be a sectional completion of “Sections 1 & 2” by the end of this term.  

Sections 1 & 2 comprise of:

•  17 x classrooms
•  6 x science labs and prep room
•  2 x IT rooms
•  1 x Flexible learning area  
•  1 x Reception / Main Office / Student Services
•  1 x Site Office
•  Student toilets and accessible toilet
•  Staff toilets
•  Facilities storage  

The intention is for Stepnell to handover these areas to the school on Friday 19th December which will allow the school free access in January to start preparing these areas for reoccupation.  We are planning a phased approach to moving back in to these spaces with science being “moved in” from the current Wernick temporary classrooms first. The logistics are complex, but by sequencing moves in the right way we will be able to free up facilities for further subject areas – for example, moving one subject area will release a lot of furniture which can be used to set up further classrooms. The plan will be to follow this approach until these sections are fully reoccupied using February half term for the final moves into sections 1 & 2.

Over January, the school will ensure that all key facilities needed in the reinstated sections of the buildings are safe and working well. This includes furniture, equipment, signage, IT infrastructure, services and other health and safety compliance.  Once ready, we will support pupils to familiarise themselves with these spaces, recognising that this will be a big change for many of them who have never seen these spaces before.  

Staff who are permanently moving back into this building during this period will also need some time to prepare their classroom spaces for teaching. This may mean that we will need to plan a moving day to allow this transition to take place. This will be communicated at the earliest possible opportunity to parents, staff and students.  

We are also planning to remove the Wernick temporary classrooms when appropriate. We are working with the Department for Education on this and have agreed an approach to remove the Wernick units during the Easter holidays. There will also be time needed either side of Easter to prepare for removal and afterwards to fix areas of the surfaces affected by the siting of the temporary classrooms. We expect there to be minimal impact on the day-to-day running of the school during this process.

The final areas of the school will then be completed and handed back by Stepnell in June 2026; these include the Assembly Hall, further office spaces, the staffroom, meeting rooms, the Gym and fitness suite, changing facilities, further student toilets and the Design & Technology and Food Technology spaces.

These are really exciting times for Aylesford School and we wanted to share this news with you ahead of the Christmas Period.  We will share further updates and information in January as the Reoccupation plans unfold.  

In the meantime, here are some “before” and “after” pictures of the spaces so you can see the transformation that has taken place during the course of the last 18 months.

Thank you for all the support, understanding and patience you have shown the school during this time as we look forward to giving our students these fantastic new spaces to learn in. 

Best wishes for the festive period,

Anna Orme

Director of Operations and reinstatement programme lead for Aylesford School

On behalf of Anna Scopes, Acting Headteacher and the Aylesford School Governing Board