School expansion complete

Staff and pupils at the Federation of Mowden Schools on Conyers Avenue attended a special assembly today (Friday, November 28) to mark the official opening of the school’s new buildings.

Over the last two years work has been carried out to increase the size of the school by adding additional classrooms, extra hall space and other ‘breakout’ rooms, including a specialist art and design studio

The work to the junior building was finished two months ago, while the additions to the infant building were finished in time for the school to incorporate its first cohort of 90 new pupils in September 2013 and a second influx of 90 children this year.

This means that the school now has 90 pupils in both year one and reception.

By the time these children have filtered through the school, there will be approximately 650 pupils attending the Federation

Alistair Johnson, deputy head, is delighted with the expansion.

He said: “The design of the new build fits in really well with the older parts so you can’t really tell where old ends and new begins.

“This has been helped by a complete refurbishment of all older classrooms by replacing flooring, ripping out old benches, decorating and adding completely new furniture for all classrooms

“We’re delighted with how the building looks and feels; we’re very proud of what has been achieved.”

Mr Johnson also praised the building team from Darlington Council and the staff and pupils’ for managing to work through two years of lots of building activity and heavy machinery on the school site.

He said that teachers ensured that no disruption was caused to pupils’ education during the work.

The official opening of the new buildings was done at the special assembly by school governor Liz McAllister who has served on the governing body since 2002

The new art and design studio has been named after Councillor Ron Lewis who died earlier this year.

He had been a governor and supporter of the Federation for 15 years.