BUILDING GETS UNDERWAY FOR A BRAND NEW MARSH ACADEMY!
Thursday 8 July 2010
The Marsh Academy will see the diggers moving in next week as work gets underway on its long-awaited, £16.8 million new building. The project will be managed by Carillion plc, which is responsible for five new academies across Kent, and students expect to start lessons in the new building in January 2012.
The design of the new building is the result of years of detailed planning and negotiation with a wide range of stakeholders. Students, staff and governors were all involved, and a series of design workshops were held with the community to ensure that the final building met the needs of all those served by the Academy. By the end of the process, all that will remain of the existing site is the Leisure Centre and the Theatre block; the rest of the site will make way for parking in front of the new building, which will contain facilities fit for 21st Century learning.
The new building features learning plazas – large open spaces to accommodate larger groups and a range of activities - in addition to modern classrooms and purpose-built vocational areas, including construction and hair and beauty facilities. These features will allow teaching staff to build on the changes to the curriculum - for example, project-based learning for years 7 and 8, and the combination of vocational and academic subjects for older years - that have seen significant improvements in pupils’ achievement and attainment since the Academy opened in 2007. School governor Patricia Rolfe, Chair of the Buildings Committee, highlighted that “the new building will enable the Academy to deliver the educational vision that is at the heart of the development plan.”
The new Academy will feature a business area to reflect the Academy’s business and enterprise specialism, and this has been designed with the potential for community use. A new multi-use games area will also be built close to the Leisure Centre for young people to use.
Executive Principal, Tracy Luke commented, “We are hugely excited by the start of work on site and can’t wait to see the building emerge. The new building will enable us to improve still further the quality of education on offer here at Marsh.
Lots of people have worked very hard to make this happen and we are especially grateful to Patricia Rolfe as she has worked tirelessly to bring this project to fruition.”