Below is a gallery of more pictures from the day. Click to enlarge and browse.

It requires from the local authority a strategic plan for the area involving proposals for education developments in all the secondary schools in Chingford, Leyton and Leytonstone.

The Local Authority have asked us to increase our year 7 intake from the current number of 215 to 240. They have also asked us to run a sixth form of about 400. This will be in two or three years time and not in the immediate future. Even so there are massive implications for the school buildings which are simply not big enough at present to cope with those numbers. The current project of a maths and pupil services block and a sports centre is only meeting existing needs and not any expansion of numbers.

The proposal also asks us to embark on an integration programme with the Joseph Clark school on a similar basis to the existing programme with Whitefields where some pupils with visual impairment will join some of our mainstream classes accompanied by a member of staff from the special school. This will also have implications for the school buildings in terms of access. We continue to strengthen our partnership with Whitefields school which benefits us by being able to tap into their expertise in special education and them by controlled integration into mainstream classes for a number of pupils.

To benefit from the opportunities BSF provides we are being asked to write a strategic plan for the future of the school, then to demonstrate what parts of the existing building need to be replaced and what parts need to be simply refurbished. Our school plans must be consistent with the local authority plans if our proposals are to be accepted as part of the wave 5 BSF programme. Local Authority support is essential and they have a huge say in the scale of allocation that we will eventually receive.

As you may recall, the maths block and sports centre project now being built under a different funding stream, was designed to be the first part of a long term strategic plan to rebuild the school to meet our future needs as we saw them. The core values of the school were the major influence on the strategy used when prioritising pupil services, new maths rooms and new sports facilities. The next priority area for complete rebuilding is the science and technology block. We sent a high quality outline proposal to the borough last year when it became clear that we would be part of their wave 5 BSF programme to ensure they understood how we saw things developing. We felt it was important that they understood that we had a powerful strategy to achieve a secure and sustainable future for the school as a local high achieving comprehensive at the heart of the community. Our core values underline our determination to remain a comprehensive secondary school that serves the community of Highams Park and guiding our young people to become good, successful citizens for the future.

The overview of the next stage of the development of the school site prioritizes the replacement of facilities for science and technology, rationalised catering facilities which meet the needs of the pupils whatever their age, new administration areas, adequate indoor social areas for pupils when the weather is bad especially for year 7 pupils in transition, new sixth form facilities and refurbishment  of all other departmental areas to provide adequately for the expected numbers in line with the borough requirement.

We think we need a project worth in the region of £20million to complete the work necessary to bring the rest of the school up to the mark. We have an active group of pupils heavily involved with the design process as part of a borough wide project to gain the views of stakeholders known as JoinedUpDesignForSchools. They are doing an excellent job and their findings are posted regularly on the website. To meet their exacting requirements, our final allocation for BSF cannot be less than the £20million we think will be necessary.

Below you can see some images of ideas we have already worked on some time ago in preparation for an opportunity to re-develop the buildings. They still serve as a good starting point for this opportunity. Click on an image to enlarge it, you can then scroll through all of them. Click here to download a PDF file of the images called "Our plans for future re-building of the school". 

Below you can see some images of ideas we have already worked on some time ago in preparation for an opportunity to re-develop the buildings. They still serve as a good starting point for this opportunity. Click on an image to enlarge it, you can then scroll through all of them.