School enjoys first onsite hot lunches in 102 years after £2.3m expansion

Newport Girls’ High School (NGHS) expansion project has been completed after monies were raised through a mix of grants and fundraising.

The £2.3m building programme was designed to meet the demands of the school's expansion and creates new maths and science facilities for students, as well as the school's own kitchens.

Headteacher, Michael Scott said he is delighted with the outcome.

“Last Monday saw the first hot food cooked and eaten onsite at NGHS in 102 years. It has been a long time coming!

"Our new building offers our students modern, innovative – and warm – learning facilities and is also eco-efficient."

The new building is situated at the rear of the current site on Wellington Road and meets two long-held aims; to improve the facilities for maths and science teaching but also to cook and prepare hot food on site; something which the school has never been able to do without kitchens.

The ground floor houses a dining room and kitchen, which seats about 130 students, as well as a new science laboratory and pastoral office, whilst the first floor houses four spacious mathematics classrooms and a new computing laboratory.

The project was financed in part by the Department for Education, as well as parents coming together to form a ‘Primed for Success’ campaign with a target of raising £75,000.

This was backed up by a number of successful bids to charities such as the Garfield Weston Foundation for new equipment.

Mr Scott explained: "Parents and governors created a campaign called 'Primed for Success' – it was a bit of a maths pun because the building was primarily for maths use. So all the increments in funding were prime numbers, and things like that.

"The girls and some of the parents put together an auction with donations from generous local businesses to help raise funds. Unfortunately, a lot of the things and events they organised got postponed with lockdown and Covid. So many of the ideas the girls came up with couldn't be done sadly.

"But they managed to raise funds, and we also had donations from some parents at the school who could help."

He added: "It has only been 12 months since the first spade hit the ground so we are very fortunate that it's all done and we're in.

"The building was occupied from last Monday – the girls are loving it. And having their own cooked lunches is great – having better quality food that is prepared on site and gives them more of a variety."

Newport Girls’ High School has committed to taking 30 additional Year 7 students each year for four more years to meet the demand for places locally. Sixth form applications are also welcome from Year 11 students until the deadline on February 14, 2022.

The new building was constructed by Interclass plc of Wolverhampton whilst the architects were Baart Harries Newall of Shrewsbury.