Students spend first day in new Telford school - with pictures

Grange Park Primary School in Telford held its final lessons at its site in Calcott, Stirchley, last month, and yesterday they began learning at the new site in Grange Avenue.

The new Grange Park Primary School has been built on a site at the old Lord Silkin/Lakeside Academy site.

It features bigger classrooms and new teaching equipment.

The new complex, which is situated next to Telford Park School, will cater for about 400 pupils and 60 nursery children.

The school, which came about after Three Oaks Primary and Stirchley Primary merged in 2010, held an open day on June 8 to give anyone interested the chance to look around the new building.

A grand official opening of the new site is planned for later this year.

Headteacher Richard Thorpe said the children seem "really pleased" with their new school premises.

He said: "The nursery is just superb, and we have reception next door so we can open it up and connect the two.

"The nursery is a much bigger area than the old site and they have an outside area too.

"The old building was just falling apart, and the roof was leaking.

"We've also got a field, forest school area, allotment area, an area to play sports.

"We're hoping over the summer to get a small 3G pitch and we will be funding that."

Mr Thorpe said the project initially started 10 years ago.

"This whole project has been going on for 10 years from the inception, from when the schools first merged, it's been a long drawn out process but it will be worth it," he added.

"The building work has been about 18 months to two years.

"We've got the latest smart boards, it's just superb.

"We have a multi-purpose hall, we do lunches in there and PE. The hall is right by the entrance to the school so it is perfect for events. People won't have to traipse through the hall.

"I think the cost of the building was roughly £4-5million.

"It works really well. Things like having the cloak rooms outside the classrooms.

"It's been really positive overall, we've got a few little tweaks still. It's like a new house, we've got to live in it for a little while to get used to it.

"The staff have worked exceptionally hard leading up to it, it's worked pretty well.

"We've got a real cross-section of children, we're very tailored to the individual needs of the children. It's a real strength of the school, the team do great work with the children.

"The classrooms all have similar furniture but the teachers can make their own mark on it.

"The children seem really pleased. It's nice that it's right in the heart of Stirchley.

"Year 6 are at the far end of the school closest to the secondary school, we've got a bridge which will help with the transition and to link between the two schools."

An 11-year-old Year 6 student, Angeli Mansurali said the old school was "falling apart".

She said: "This is a lot nicer than the old one, it was falling apart.

"It is very different."

Ruby Jordan, 11, said: "It's easier because we've got bigger corridors and at lunch time we can all sit together with our friends but at our old school if we had school dinners we sat apart from sandwiches. We can all sit together now.

"I wish we were in Year 5 so we could stay longer and do our SATs here."

Caitlin Walker, 11, said it was "surreal".

She said: "It's quite surreal, when we heard we were getting a new school we weren't expecting it to be this techy.

"The windows open and close by themselves depending on how hot it is in the room and the lights dim. Our whiteboard goes up and down so the shorter students can reach it.

"The rooms are quite sound-proof, we tested it, one class was screaming and we could barely hear it."

Mr Thorpe added: "This is going to be our long-term home, we'll have no leaking roofs like in the old school. This will be our home for a long long time."

Wates construction firm was responsible for building the new school and the old site is set to be demolished.

It is understood that outline planning permission has already been granted to build homes on the land in Calcott, Stirchley.