Highbury Grove School held a 'ground breaking' ceremony last week, to celebrate the official start of building works that will see the site transformed over the next two years.<br><br>By 2010, new state-of-the-art buildings and facilities will be developed at the school and in September 2009, Samuel Rhodes secondary pupils will move in to a brand new purpose-built facility on the existing Highbury Grove site.<br><br>Leader of Islington Council, Cllr James Kempton, made the first strike of the spade into the school grounds. He said: "This is a really exciting moment not just for Highbury Grove and Samuel Rhodes, but for all Islington secondary schools . I want to give all our young people a better start in life, with the modern, fantastic learning facilities they all deserve. That's why we're investing heavily in the borough's secondary schools, re-building and refurbishing all of them, to make them places we can all be truly proud of. This ground-breaking marks the beginning of changes that will significantly improve the standards of education for children and young people in Islington."<br><br>Julian Burton, Project Director from Balfour Beatty Construction (Islington Council's contractor carrying out Building Schools for the Future (BSF) said: "This ground breaking ceremony marks the start of the Islington BSF regeneration project that will bring major benefits for education in the whole borough. We are proud to be working with Islington Council and look forward to delivering an exciting and innovative building programme and a first-class facility to the council, students and local community." <br><br>Alongside first class teaching facilities, the new Highbury Grove School will offer specialist areas for business enterprise and ICT, performance and art, science, design technology and catering. The swimming pool will also be refurbished and incorporated into the main sports area of the site. Many of the new facilities will be open to the local community outside of school hours. <br><br>Whilst Samuel Rhodes will operate separately to Highbury Grove, both schools will share the same dining areas and some sports facilities. In addition to new specialist art, music and technology sections, special areas will also be developed for health and social care workers to interact with the SEN (Special Educational Needs) pupils. <br><br><br><br><br>
Page Last Updated: 17 December 2009