School work starts

By Natalie Vincent - Tue 4 September 2018, 11:39 am

Work is underway on a secondary school in one of east London's largest regeneration schemes.

The latest phase of Greatfields School, in Barking's Gascoigne Estate, will provide 18 more classrooms and specialist teaching areas, that includes science, design technology and music, for 540 pupils.

When the work is completed for the 2019 school year, Year 10 pupils will join years seven, eight and nine: a new primary school will complete the development in 2020, providing an all-through education campus for a total of 2,400 primary, secondary and sixth form students.

Headteacher Richard Paul, along with Barking and Dagenham councillor Evelyn Carpenter, Jennie Coombs, head of affordable housing with Be First, the borough's wholly owned development company, and Andrew Shepherd, chief executive of Mid-Group, watched the start of the works.

Paul said: "As the school grows rapidly, the new phase will give us much needed space and access to high quality science, design and music classrooms.

“These fantastic facilities will benefit our students throughout the school and especially those about to embark upon their GCSE courses. We are very grateful to the council, Mid-Group, Be First and Partnership Learning for helping to provide us with such a superb building."

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