The first phase in a £4.4 million expansion at Addington School for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, has now officially opened.
Designed by HLM Architects the new facilities include two multi-use game areas, a sensory path, and an expanded car park at the Ofsted-rated outstanding school in the Wokingham borough.
The expansion will enable more children to attend the school, and the completed works mean the project is now able to progress on to the second phase of construction. A new single-storey block will provide four classrooms for vocational use by pupils, a café and social/breakout areas, with works beginning this autumn, to open for the start of the new school year in September 2020.
Working with modular construction specialists Reds10, 60 to 70 per cent of the work is being constructed offsite to reduce disruption to the school and its pupils as well as providing high-quality building works.
The expansion will boost the school’s capacity to more than 250, allowing more local children with special educational needs and disabilities to be educated closer to home.
HLM representatives, along with fellow contractor Reds10 attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony last month.
“Wokingham Borough Council commissioned HLM Architects for this project after identifying the need to increase pupil capacity as well as enhance the school provision for their 16 to 19-year-olds,” said Claire Wakelin, Studio Director at HLM Architects.
“We worked closely with all project stakeholders from the onset to develop a holistic and flexible design approach that catered to the school’s every need, which was restricted by the current site boundary.
“We are pleased to have helped bring this much-needed expansion to fruition and look forward to our continued work in this community as the project now moves to the second phase.”
Borough Mayor Cllr Bill Soane, who also attended the launch, added: “It was a pleasure to be on site at Addington to cut the ribbon for the school’s new facilities.
“I can’t wait to come back and see the school once this exciting expansion project has been completed.”