The construction of our new school is underway with a completion date of Summer 2024. We will be working with our students and our contractors on the layout and design of our school over the next few year as we work in 'unity' to shape our school together.
We have worked hard over the past few years to design a school that supports our mission to offer a unique opportunity to learn in a modern setting with traditional values. Our school will ensure that students are confident, respectful and responsible young people, who are able to face the challenges of modern society. We believe that through our traditional ethos and values, we will create an environment where students are respectful for where they learn, who they learn with and who they are as unique and aspirational young people.
Not only have we carefully considered the layout of the building, we have also carefully thought about the wider environment where the children learn. The outside space around the school will be lush with wealth of vegetation as well as supporting our sustainability aims with electronic car charging points, numerous bike racks and recycling stations to highlight a few.
The building has been assessed for access to natural light to ensure bright classrooms. Every room optimises the natural light streaming into the room to support our calm, purposeful and respectful atmosphere.
Some of the highlights of each floor are shared below:
Our school will have an on site gym as part of our Thinking Fitness family. The students will have access to the latest gym equipment as well as a competition standard sports hall and fitness studio. There are dedicated changing areas for students to change as well as lockers for students to store their belongings before and after their lessons. The building is positioned at the front of the school and will have glass aspects to take advantage of the views and beauty of our school setting.
Now that work has begun on our state-of-the-art new build, it's exciting to see how quickly the site changes.
This page will be regularly updated, sharing information about the progress at the Frindsbury site - From digging and frame work to landscaping and interior, join us on our journey to our new build.
In March, we were thrilled to celebrate the official ground-breaking of our new build in Frindsbury.
The ceremony was attended by a number of representatives from across the community. These included representatives from the Department for Education, Medway Councillor Martin Potter, the CEO of Thinking Schools Academy Trust, Stuart Gardner, the Director of Education for the Strood Hub, Jody Murphy, Head of School at Maritime Academy, Matt Evans, Board Members, Gerard Newman and Peter Martin, and Chair of Governors, Ashley Hall.
Offices are set up and construction began with earthworks commencing, stripping topsoil and reducing the existing ground levels for the main building and Sports Hall.
While the main site is being prepared and levelled, kerbs have started to be laid for the permanent car park.
It's great to see the ground start to take shape.
The new school site is progressing well, with the ground beams being placed and secured and the foundations being poured for the main teaching block.
The sports hall area has started to have the pile caps excavated, and the ground has continued to be levelled across the expansive outdoor space, which will house our state-of-the-art sports pitches.
You can witness the progress by watching our marvellous drone footage below:
On the 12th June, we witnessed the first of the school's steel framing being put into place.
Head of School, Mr Evans and Director of Education, Mrs Murphy were both in attendance to witness this significant moment in the building as the school starts to take shape.
Since then, the progress has continued through the month, and it's easy to see the impressive size of the space, which will provide state-of-the-art facilities for our students.
Researchers at the UCL Institute of Archaeology discovered some of the largest early prehistoric stone tools in Britain during the commission pre-development excavations.
Preserved on the hillside in the Medway Valley, the researchers discovered 800 stone artefacts thought to be over 300,000 years old, buried in sediments which filled a sinkhole and an ancient river channel, as outlined in their research, published in Internet Archaeology.
Amongst the unearthed artefacts were two extremely large flint knives described as “giant handaxes” along side a Roman cemetery, dating at least a quarter of a million years later than the Ice Age period.
Throughout the Summer break, the build has continued to progress as expected, with drainage systems being completed, ground floor slab pour planned and roof work commencing, the school is coming together nicely.
Cut and fill works to ground levels is ongoing and nearly complete, ready for the pitch works to prepared for seeding later in the year.
Following the announcement of the outstanding archeological discoveries on our ground, we were delighted to welcome a small film crew from BBC 2's archeological series "Digging for Britain" to the site.
Letty Ingrey, senior archaeologist from the UCL Institute of Archaeology walked the team through the discovery journey from finding the artefacts to processing them and publishing their significant findings. It's amazing that our brand new school already has such a rich legacy.
As we start the new academic year, we have seen further progress to the new school build.
The installation of the frames and planks to the main teaching block has now been completed with work on the sport block starting to take shape.
Most of the building's ground floor slab pours have been completed and roof works now commencing.
Sports pitches are currently being levelled, reading for the seeding to take place.
As we truly head into the cold and wet weather, the main structure of the teaching block continues to progress with Intumescent paint being applied and on-going roof works completing.
This month saw the start of roofing being installed to the sports hall as well as the building's floor slab being completed.
The main building's Dry Lining works continue to progress well with stud walls going up and boarding on all floors.Window instalation also continues and nears completion.
It's great to see the interior of our school coming together, being able to walk into our classrooms and down the corridors is fantastic.
The roof works of the main block have now been completed and the first stage of fix balustrading (brackets and posts) has now started.
The dry lining works are continuing to progress well with stud walls being built and boarded across all floors and the life installation has also now commenced. Our Trust staff have also been enjoying visits to the building, to explore the new space which will soon be available to your students.
This month, we opened our doors to our Trust's Brand and Marketing team to discuss what signage and design is needed throughout the building.
Classrooms are being painted and doors installed, while the ceiling are being added to the first and second floor rooms.
Flooring has been delivered, ready to be laid throughout the building ahead of fixed furniture being secured into place.
As a sustainable build, everything has been planned with our environment in mind. This month we saw the installation of our Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Panels to both the main school building and the Sports Hall.
All ceilings on the first and second floors are now complete with the ground floor ceiling currently in progress to completion.
Brick slip is continuing to progress on the main teaching block, with the panels being added to the East, West and North Elevation following the completion of the South.
As our build comes to a close, our developers are going through the snagging process, picking up on any little issues and fixing them ahead of opening.
Over the last few months, painting has completed, fixed furniture installed and IT systems put into place. Signage is currently being printed ahead of installment this month.
Before the summer break, our students and staff were able to explore their new school site, having a sneak peak at what they will be calling home from September.
