The Warwick Independent Schools Foundation has announced Speller Metcalfe as the contractor responsible for constructing the majority of a new King’s High School for Girls.
The Foundation announced plans last year to move King’s High School for Girls from its current town centre site to the campus on Myton Road where Warwick School and Warwick Preparatory School are already based.
The move, which will take three years to complete, will see the creation of a new main school building, a new shared music building, a new sixth form centre and improvements and extension to the Bridge Sports Centre, which will also incorporate new Art and Design Technology facilities.
New and improved sports pitches – including 3G and all-weather surfaces – will also be built at the site which will allow all 2,350 pupils to use the facilities.
The Foundation has spent several years investigating ways of developing King’s High School away from the town centre site it has occupied since it began in 1879.
Now work is set to start with Worcestershire-based Speller Metcalfe undertaking the £18.2m contract to build the first phase of the new campus, which will incorporate the construction of the King’s High School main building and sixth form centre, demolition work of the current student support centre and external works. The phase is set to be completed in September 2019.
It is the latest in a long line of local project wins for Speller Metcalfe, including the redevelopment of St Nicholas Park and Newbold Comyn Leisure Centres in Warwick and the recently completed £22 million Stratford Hospital.
Des O’Neill, Managing Director at Speller Metcalfe, said: “We are excited to be working with new client’s Warwick Independent Schools Foundation on the first phase of this fantastic development which will enhance and improve the educational experience for all pupils.
“This is a complex project which will require careful co-ordination and management to keep disruptions of the live school site to a minimum.”
Simon Jones, the Foundation Secretary, said: “Through Project One Campus, the Foundation schools will be future proofed for decades to come, providing first class facilities to continue the delivery of outstanding single sex education, whilst offering collaborative opportunities to ensure a truly ‘best of both worlds’ experience for all pupils within the schools.
“In choosing Speller Metcalfe as our key construction partner for the project, we are confident that the quality of the buildings will provide a lasting testimony to match the educational provision offered by the schools of the Warwick Independent Schools Foundation.”