Full steam ahead for Thomas Tallis rebuild 

Work to rebuild Thomas Tallis School on Kidbrooke Park Road is now in full swing, with the new school is due to open in the summer or autumn of 2011.

The new Thomas Tallis buildings will have much better teaching, sports and arts facilities than the current 1970s buildings, and are being delivered under the Labour Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme which promises new or refurbished school buildings for every secondary school in the country.

Work at Thomas Tallis had been delayed by a last-minute intervention by the Environment Agency, who needed to be satisfied that the site was safe from flooding. Like the existing school, the new school site a hundred yards to the north is near the Kid Brook, and has been carefully designed to ensure any overflow from the stream can be contained in the playing fields.

Throughout 2009 Nick Raynsford has been meeting regularly with the School, Greenwich Council and Partnerships for Schools, the Government body responsible for new school building projects, to get work at Thomas Tallis off the ground as quickly as possible. Preliminary work to clear undergrowth from the site and do exploratory surveys started in early 2009, and building work started in earnest in mid-October.

 “I am pleased that the concerns of the Environment Agency could be overcome, and that work on building the new school has started at last,” says Nick. “The new school promises to be a fantastic new building which will be much more spacious and easier to teach and study in than the current buildings.”