Work to expand Addington School is set to begin this summer, with a contractor now appointed by WOkingham Borough Council for the £4.4 million expansion of the Woodley school.
Modular construction specialists Reds10 will complete the project, which will see the existing sensory garden and two multi-use games areas (MUGAs) at the Wokingham Borough Council school relocated on the site to make way for the new block and parking areas.
The garden and sports areas will be completed this summer so students have all the facilities they are used to when they return to the Ofsted rated outstanding school in Woodlands Avenue in September.
Work will then begin on the new single-storey building, which will be on the site of the old MUGAs. The new block will include four classrooms, a café and social/breakout areas.
Sixty to 70 per cent of the building work for the new block will be completed modularly offsite, a decision made to reduce disruption to the school and its students.
The expansion, which all takes place within the school’s boundary, will allow 50 more local children with special educational needs and disabilities to be educated closer to home, with the school’s capacity boosted to more than 250 students due to the extra space.
About 130 Wokingham Borough children needing a special school place are currently educated outside the borough, which is disruptive for the children as well as being expensive.
As part of the plans the car park will be extended to accommodate 30 additional spaces, which will be required for additional staff at the school. The boundary of the car park will see additional planting around its border, including evergreen plants to provide screening all-year round.
“The council is delighted this exciting project which will benefits dozens of children from the Wokingham Borough has taken another step forward,” said executive member for children’s services, Cllr UllaKarin Clark.
“Addington is an outstanding school which provides world-class education for SEND children from the area and beyond. Now we have planning permission we will be able to commence the project to invest in the school’s facilities, which will make children and their families’ lives easier by offering more young people a school place closer to home. This will save them time with shorter journeys and reduce travel costs for the council.”
“Everyone at Addington School is excited to see this project coming to fruition,” said Addington School head teacher, Sara Attra. “The expansion of the school means our outstanding staff will be able to support even more children to get the education they need.
“We are already looking forward to seeing the brand new building in action with the range of classrooms and other exciting teaching areas available to our students from September next year.”