The best Christmas present we could ask for….

Headteacher Dr Patrick Hazlewood announced today that following a decade of planning the new St John’s School in Marlborough will finally open its doors to students on 7th December.

The last school day in the existing buildings will be Tuesday 24th November, when both the Stedman building, built in 1962 as Marlborough Grammar School and the Savernake building which opened as Marlborough Secondary Modern in 1965, will close its doors to students for the final time.

Parents at the school have been informed of the dates and have been told that all students will be asked to work at home from Wednesday 25th November until Monday 7th December while the mammoth task of packing, moving and unpacking takes place.

Construction company ISG Pearce will hand the keys of the new building to Dr Hazlewood on the morning of 23rd November and the process of moving in will begin in earnest. A fleet of removal vans will arrive on the 25th, and the process will take several days to complete.

“It is good news for all of us that we can finally announce the opening date of the new school and great news that we will be able to move in before the Christmas break” said Dr Hazlewood.

“We had originally hoped to move in over the October school holiday period but this just hasn’t been possible. We will have two weeks in the new building to settle in before the Christmas break, and I can honestly say it will be the best Christmas present one could wish for. The move requires a huge amount of organisation and all the staff at the school are working hard to ensure we will be ready when the students return”.

The school will cut the October holiday from seven days to five days, 26-30th October, and will allow just eight days for the move to the new school from 25th November. The first students will set foot in the new school on Monday 7th December. During the eight day closure students will be set work to complete and the staff are already working to ensure that there is minimum disruption to their studies.
The first day in the new school will be for the youngest students in years 7 & 8 and the Sixth Form only. The rest of the school will move in on the following day, 8th December.

The original plan was to move into the new building during an extended October holiday, but the construction programme fell behind when the school became cut off during the bad weather earlier this year and despite their best efforts, ISG Pearce were unable to recover the lost time.

The school is planning a number of events over the first few months in the new school to give parents and the wider community the opportunity to see the school for themselves. The new St John’s is a unique building designed to blend into the hillside to the south of Marlborough which will house nearly 1,600 students. The £26 Million project is the biggest ever building project in the Marlborough area and will not only provide a vast range of facilities for students, but will also be available for use for a wide range of other purposes by sports bodies, community groups and businesses.

The new building consists of a series of buildings linked by a vast atrium and walkway with several central courtyards. The building will be topped with over 6,000 square metres of sedum that will help to insulate the building, keeping it cool in summer and warm in winter, as well as helping the building to blend into the hillside.

Vehicles will access the school from the new road at the top of Granham Hill on the Marlborough to Pewsey road, while pedestrians and bicycles will continue to use the roads and footpaths to the east of the school.

Once the move is complete, work will commence to demolish the existing schools, but St John’s staff & students are working to ensure that the buildings are never forgotten. Plans are already underway for a final open weekend to give ex-students one last chance to look around the old schools before the demolition process begins.

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