Highbury Grove revamp is different class - School's £29million refurbishment launches government's Building Schools for the future scheme

Published: 5 March 2010
by ROISIN GADELRAB

WHICH zone or you in? Blue? Green? Pupils at Highbury Grove School need only look at the colours of their lockers and classroom doors to work out which department they are in. 

Gone are cramped corridors. As part of a £29million refurbishment they have been replaced with wider walkways and a ground-floor boulevard christened “Main Street”.

Highbury Grove is the first of Islington’s secondary schools to be overhauled as part of a £140m programme made possible by money from the government’s Building Schools for the Future scheme and private investments. It has undergone a massive redevelopment, which involved refurbishing a run-down swimming pool and constructing a new building around the old site. 

Construction company Balfour Beatty are now in the process of demolishing the old buildings and clearing away rubble to make way for brand-new outdoor sports pitches, a running track and an amphitheatre. Another £8m has gone into creating new premises for Samuel Rhodes school, which will share the site and some facilities.

Work on Holloway School, costing £17m, has also been completed. St Aloysius College in Archway is expected to be finished in April, while work is yet to begin at Islington Arts and Media School of Creativity, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language College, Central Foundation Boys School, Mount Carmel Technology College, Highbury Fields School and New River College Pupil Referral Unit.

Highbury Grove associate headteacher Henry Jones led a delegation of visitors invited by Islington Council leader Terry Stacy, who described the building as “stunning” as they toured the new-look premises on Tuesday.

He added: “The new school building is fantastic. It’s filled with natural light coming from the large windows throughout and the corridors are bright and spacious.”

Included are specialist areas for business enterprise and ICT, performance and art, science, design technology and catering. 

Springing up from the heart of the development is a huge, three-storey art room with a giant skylight.

The new sports hall, on the first floor, holds four badminton courts, as well as markings for five-a-side football, basketball, netball and cricket nets.

Islington Council has established a Local Education Partnership (LEP) called Transform Islington to design, build and maintain all secondary schools in the borough. Balfour Beatty will take charge of the project.