Berewood Primary School, the first of two schools to be built and funded by Grainger in the new Berewood community development, is poised to open its doors to the first pupils in September.
The £8million Primary School designed by Hampshire County Council Property services, will play an important part in the community at Berewood. The school which sits on over two acres of land has a main hall, a music and drama studio, library and state of the art ICT equipment across the school,, alongside a kitchen and food technology classroom.
The 420 capacity school has fourteen classrooms, with associated offices and admin areas, along with a range of outdoor learning and play resources, including climbing and balancing equipment.
Supported by University of Chichester Academy Trust, Berewood Primary School will be an Academy school, meaning that it will have more freedom over its own affairs while receiving funding from the Department of Education.
Academies differ from local authority run schools as they have greater independence and are able to make decisions for their own particular school community. They are still guided by the national education framework (and inspected by Ofsted) but can make more flexible choices, for example, on developing their curriculum and setting budget priorities to meet local needs.
Sue Patrick, Head Teacher at Berewood Primary School said: “Since I was appointed as head teacher, I’ve been talking to prospective pupils and parents, sharing with them the exciting development of our school and visiting local pre-schools who have children entering school in September. Over the summer we’ve been putting the finishing touches to the school, recognising that this is an extremely exciting time for the community of Berewood, and wanting to build the foundations of not only a beautiful building, but also of a school of which we will all be proud.
“I am looking forward to welcoming the new pupils and families to the school. We are in a unique position as we aren’t opening up year by year but welcoming children of all years, so siblings remain together. We are committed to creating a special place of learning for our communityâ€.
John Beresford, Development director at Grainger said: “The opening of the school represents a step forward in the creation of our new community at Berewood. The school will sit at the heart of the development, accessed by the proposed village square, where there will be shops, cafes and offices. The school itself will be a community asset, and will be available for community groups outside of school hoursâ€. “Now that we’ve got this important part of the social infrastructure in place we are starting to look at the designs for the village square and over the next six months we’ll be sharing some of our plans with the local community.â€
“The master-planned scheme at Berewood has 2,550 homes, which will be built in the next 10-12 years. As the school grows, the community will too. I know that there are a number of families who have moved into Berewood already who have enrolled their children into the school and this is symbolic of Grainger’s messageâ€.