Refurbished SEND & MFL building opens at Kings Academy

Wessex Learning Trust were delighted to secure funding for the refurbishment of an extremely dilapidated building at Kings Academy, creating a new SEND centre along with new classrooms for teaching Modern Foreign Languages.

Kings Academy Head Teacher Mr David Wiltshire, highlighted to the Trust that the building was in major disrepair and had become dangerous due to failed cladding. Mr Wiltshire put forward a business case for repair of the building, but several failed attempts at securing school condition allocations funding (SCA) meant it wasn’t looking promising. However, the growth of Wessex Learning Trust enabled it to take advantage of the SCA (funding is only allocated to Trusts with at least five academies and at least 3000 pupils) and finally secure the funding needed to carry out a full refurbishment including all windows, doors and cladding to be replaced.

Trustees of the Trust agreed that the building posed the biggest risk within the school grounds, but also saw this as an opportunity to make the building more energy efficient, by adding insulation to the previously uninsulated walls and replacing the single glazed windows with double glazing.

Wessex Learning Trust also funded the bathroom refurbishment and updated the heating system, as well as install LED lighting throughout the building, further reducing energy use. Kings Academy also used school reserves to refurbish the internal aesthetics, including new staircase handrails, ceiling tiles, decoration, flooring and furniture.

Head Teacher David Wiltshire said ‘I am delighted that the Trust recognised the urgency to refurbish the building. By securing funding and working closely with the Trust Estates Manager, we are now able to provide a much-needed SEND centre for Kings students as well as a newly developed area offering bespoke mentoring intervention to a wide range of young people at Kings. This new development also boasts a new suite dedicated to the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages.’