New junior school is picture perfect

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Two excited pupils at Dame Allan’s Junior School had a sneak preview of their new school at Hunter’s Moor.

Year two pupils have been painting their ideas of how the new Nursery and Junior School will look when they move in this September. Two lucky pupils visited the site with deputy head Mrs Deborah Farren.

“They haven’t seen the site since it was a big hole in the ground, but they, and their fellow pupils are all eagerly awaiting the big move,” explained Mrs Farren. “They were keen to see where their Year 3 classroom will be and were thrilled to know they will have an upstairs classroom with views looking across the Town Moor.”

The very young children in nursery and reception will have their own self-contained classrooms at one end of the school, with their own separate entrance.

All the classrooms on the ground floor open out into the open spaces, so the children can work and play together in their own safe, breakout areas, moving inside and out depending on the weather and their activities.

At break times the children can play in one of three separate play areas. The pupils will be able to play on their own dedicated coaching areas for netball, rugby, cricket and athletics. They will also be able to play football, tennis and hockey on an all weather games area.

Both pupils had clearly painted the distinctive library in the new building and were delighted to learn that their artistic skills would still be needed in future.

“The pupils will be able to decorate part of the library themselves to support the topics they are studying. The central part of the library will be comfortable and informal to encourage the children to enjoy reading and feel cosy.”

They all left Hunter’s Moor speculating about how to transform the library into the Gruffalo’s cave.