A project which started in 2014 has seen us move to our new building in November 2017
Our new building and sports hall have been built on our existing site. The construction started in June 2016 on our playing field.
Below, the fantastic aerial view shows our previous school building in the lower left hand corner. The new build and sports hall can now been seen on Google Earth! We are very proud to be a green school in more ways than one - we have over 200 solar panels!
Some of the history behind our school
In 1948 Swakeleys School was a mixed school and it was not until 1952 that boys were "transferred to a new building some distance away" (in the words of the Ministry of Education!). That was the start of Swakeleys School for Girls which had 453 pupils. A report below by HM Inspectors in 1957 was found on the last day of packing up our school in preparation for the move - it makes for very interesting reading!
A few snippets from the report:
"The majority if girls who leave at fifteen take up some form of clerical work or enter one of the distributive trades"
"The school is well equipped with visual and aural aids and it has a tape recorder" Hard to believe this made it into an inspection report!
"The greatest single handicap is still the absence of a hall large enough to hold all of the girls at once" For those who know the old building, you will know that this continued to be an issue right through until 2017!!
"Dancing would be more valuable if the gramophone records used were less scratched and worn!"
Subjects inspected outside what you would expect include: Commerce, Gardening & Animal Care, Housecraft and Needlework!
The staff consisted of the Headmistress and 24 Assistant Headmistresses, a far cry from the 120+ teaching and support staff that now work here. Although we do not know when this changed, Swakeleys School also only had female teaching staff!The demolition of our building which we have occupied since the 1970's will take until September 2018. This will then be landscaped and become the main entrance to the new build as shown in the computer images below
The new build and sports hall are truly inspirational learning spaces. The images below provide an excellent representation of the feel of the new build.
And finally a feel for some of the amazing teaching spaces....
