New drama suite for school

Tuesday June 2, 2009

Well played: Construction of a new drama suite at Henry Compton school will begin next month

Work on a state-of-the-art building to teach performing arts is set to begin next month after the project was given the thumbs-up.

H&F Council's planning applications committee has approved Henry Compton School's £1.5million drama suite, which will house a drama studio, two large classrooms and a make-up room.

The building - which will be used by local groups as well as pupils - will also have staff offices, a green room, changing rooms and toilets.

Construction should start at the same time, at the beginning of the school holidays, on a £2m two-storey modern languages block at Fulham Cross School.

Both blocks are expected to open in May next year. The works are part of plans to link up Henry Compton and Fulham Cross and develop a mixed-sex sixth form.

Henry Compton headteacher Dinesh Ramjee said: "This is a wonderful opportunity for the school to develop its expressive arts curriculum. The boys are very keen on drama and this will allow us to put on bigger productions, and to work with local primary schools and groups.

"We hope this will be a community building that will be used by everyone and allow us to work even more closely with our feeder schools."

The block will also be at the forefront of environmentally friendly technology, using renewable energy through sun pipes to provide light and solar panels to generate hot water.

The drama suite will boast a 'green' roof covered in moss and plants, natural ventilation systems and external timber cladding.

The building at Fulham Cross, a language specialist school, would provide five extra classrooms, three of which will have computer equipment for ICT classes.

The rooms can be used for evening classes in English and other languages for local residents. The structure will be finished in terracotta tiles and timber cladding, and its roof covered with plants.

Fulham Cross headteacher Bernie Peploe said: "We are delighted that work on our new language college building is about to begin. In addition to providing our students with state-of-the-art facilities, we can extend our expertise in language teaching to the wider community."

Under the link-up plan, the schools would have a single governing body and one principal, and provide 10 classes per academic year. This would mean an intake of 300 pupils at the age of 11 and a total of 1,500 places for 11 to 16-year-olds. Single-sex education on both sites would still continue until pupils were 14, but in Year 10 students would be offered some mixed-sex classes.

H&F cabinet member Antony Lillis said: "We are planning to spend £245m on improving local schools as every child deserves the best start in life.

"We want every local parent to feel confident that choosing a local school means a first-class education."

The two schools will come together in a federation at the beginning of the school year in September.

One of the first tasks for the governors will be to appoint the principal.

This comes on the back of a major consultation last year into the future of state education in H&F.