In The Summer Time
28 April 2010
The Costain team in Lewisham, south London, is targeting
August for final planning approval for the Prendergast-Hilly Fields
College project, which will both deliver a new school and refurbish
an existing, listed building.
The school will have 1,000 pupils when completed - 600 girls in
the main school and a mixed sixth form that is being expanded from
its current 250 pupils to around 400. Specialising in modern
languages, music, maths and information and communications
technology (ICT), it is rated as the best-performing school in the
London borough.
Stage One approval - outline acceptance of the design and price
by the borough's authorities - came a few weeks ago and the
detailed planning work now underway is due to go in front of a
council committee in August.
If approval is granted, financial close will come in November
and work will then start almost immediately.
"The new buildings are designed around a retained sports hall
and are for all pupils from 12 to sixth form," explains Project
Director Brian Fisher. A mix of both three and four-storey
structures, they will have steel frames with brickwork and
cladding finishes.
The refurbishment part of the project will take place in a
Victorian building situated some 400 yards away. This has Grade II*
listed status because of its internal painted murals. "We're trying
to do the work with minimal intrusion to the building, to bring it
to current school standards so that it's suitable for the disabled,
is up to modern fire standards and has improved ICT
infrastructure," says Fisher.
The first phase of the new building, which will house the
enlarged sixth form, is due for completion in January 2012. Full
completion of the project is scheduled for April 2013.