School in need of space opens £1.4m building

By [kmanning]

PUPILS and staff at a  secondary school have welcomed a £1.4m extension.

 The seven-classroom  modular building, at the  King’s School in Ottery St  Mary, was created to house  the geography department  and the sixth-form centre.

 It was officially opened  by the chairman of Devon  County Council, John  Berry, who cut the ribbon,  toured the block and had a  cream tea yesterday.

Other changes at the  school have included moving the staff room to the  former sixth-form area and  turning the former staff  room into two classrooms.

 Headteacher Faith Jarrett said the new extension  was desperately needed as  the 1,100-pupil school,  which takes youngsters  from Ottery St Mary, West  Hill, Tipton, Feniton and  Payhembury, was running  out of space.

She said: “There was  such a pressure on classrooms, kids were being  taught all their classes in  different rooms.

“Now it’s fantastic. They  have made a brilliant job of  it. The students love it and  the classrooms are a really  nice size.

“The rooms in the school  date from 1912 to 2009 and  every decade in between.”

The new building was  funded by Devon County  Council.

 Miss Jarrett said: “The  first thing they have to go  on is basic need. We didn’t  have enough space to teach  the children and they were  going to be sat outside unless they had some more  classrooms.

“If Devon was funded  even at the national average for education, there  would be no problem with  any of this. If my school had  even just average funding,  it would have been almost  half a million pounds  more.

“I am grateful that Devon  still found money to put a  much-needed block in.”

 The county council’s cabinet member for schools  and skills Christine Channon said: “King’s is one of  our most successful and  high-achieving secondary  schools and it is pleasing to  be able to provide extra accommodation and facilities  for the hard-working students and staff.”

Because of the poor access to the school, the new  two-storey building was  manufactured off-site and  delivered in modules.

It was then assembled  and fitted out on-site.