Feb 2010 - we have appointed a contractor!

GCC have appointed EG Carter Construction! This is really exciting as from now on things are going to get very real very fast!!!

Ian Brown is our day-to-day contact at Carters and he can be contacted on T: 01452 529194 for any concerns or comments.

They will be moving in the day after the school closes for the summer holidays in July 2010 to set up the site compound and make the whole site safe for when the school re-opens in September. The main school is due for completion and ready to move into in September 2011, and the nursery by April 2011! its going to be fast so hold on!

It is inevitable that there will be disruption to the school during construction [and then demolition and landscaping], but we are all committed to minimising this as much as possible. We will be posting the access proposals as soon as they are definite.

Nicola

Februrary 2010 - we have submitted for planning!

The overall site plan

View of the nursery from Horton Road with main school in the background

View of Nursery Garden

View of main school from north-west corner

View of main school entrance

This is a very exciting milestone in the project - we have now submitted two planning applications for the main school and the nursery. Timescales are difficult to predict as it depends on a whole load of things, but it would be safe to say that the earliest we will know if the 13 may 2010 when the Planning Committee meet.

Holds thumbs!

The applications haven' been logged just yet by the planning team, but when I have confirmation of this, I will post the details of where you can view the docs, who the planning officer is for these jobs and how you can comment on the proposals [positive or negative!]

Nicola

Januray 2010 - Open Consultation Evening

Leaflet sent out to interested parties [incl neighbours, parents and parish churches]

We are hosting an open session for all those who are interested in what our proposals are for the new school and nursery. We will be set up with drawings and models from 3:30pm on Wednesday 24th and will be there until 8pm. We would love to see parents, staff, governors, parish members and neighbours at this event.



Please do come along!

Nicola

EXCITING NEWS!!! we have funding for an on-site nursery!

GCC have approved funding for an on-site 26 place nusery! This is the best news ever as the existing facility is so popular and well-supported! it also gives the children a softer transition into main stream education [whether that is at St Peter's or another school]

BUT the funding has one stipulation - the building needs to be handed over by March 2011! This is really really fast!

Watch this space!!!

Nicola

December 2009 - Planning Deadline

We have decided to aim for a planning deadline of mid February 2010. There will be a raft of decisions we need to make in a short amount of time, but we will be speaking regularly to the User Group who can then inform all of you of how things are progressing!

Wish us luck!

Nicola

December 2009 - New Team Member!

We have a new team member! Rob Tadman has joined FCBS. He has excellent schools experience! You will probably all meet him in future sessions.

Welcome Rob!

14 December 2009 - Staff Consultation

Staff Consultation 14 December 2009

The revised scheme

Following some comments by the staff on our previous design we took a fresh look at the proposed plans and saw that we had some improvements to do!!! we developed a scheme that linked around the back of the spiritual space which gave a better sense of unity of the school as a whole. This linking piece is an exciting open-plan project space. We met with the whole staff on the 14th December to show the developments and how the scheme had changed to take on board their previous comments. We ran through a long list of issues
–Toilets
–The classroom pair
–Group room
–The library
–ICT suite / not
–Food Tech / Science
–Position of staff room / key office spaces


After a lot of doughnuts and chocolates it was agreed that it was the right way to go and we had total buy-in from the staff.

YAY! This means so much to us - we don't want to be working up a design the staff are not fully behind!

nicola

November 2009 - Stage A/B approved by Gateway Board

Our Stage A/B report has been approved by the Challenge and Gateway Approval Board [representatives from both GCC and the parish]. This is great news and we can start working up the one-storey option in more detail!

nicola