Cressex Community School

Building work started in July 2008. We will be moving into the new school in July 2010 ready for the start of the new school year. A feature of the new building will be excellent information technology facilities to support learning in all subjects.
In addition, there will be exciting outdoor learning spaces, which Cressex students themselves have helped to design.
In order to help teachers and students get a flavour of what it will be like to work in the new school, we have developed two existing classrooms as a special learning area with modern information technology equipment and furniture. All students have a chance to benefit from this high quality learning environment.

Staff and governors at the school in Holmers Lane, High Wycombe, battled for five years to secure funding to do up the run-down buildings.

At a meeting in September last year parents and pupils were told Cressex would be getting £20million to do the work, but this figure has now risen by more than 50 per cent.

After calculating how much it would cost to completely re-do the school, Buckinghamshire County Council applied for a bigger grant, which it successfully got.

The money has come from the Government's Building Schools for the Future scheme and Cressex has been picked as the only school in the county to get the money. Other schools on the list across the country will not be getting their grants until 2013.

All 18 of Cressex's shabby buildings will be replaced and work is hoped to start this summer with the new state-of-the-art school opening by 2009.

David Hood, Cressex head teacher, said: "This is tremendous news for Cressex pupils and their families.

"They deserve the highest quality education and we are looking forward to building on our recent Ofsted success.

"It's going to be absolutely stunning when they build it."

"With 31 rather than £20million, it's going to be better than it was the first time round. The children are really excited. They have been drawing their own versions of the type of school they'd want. It fits in very nicely with the positive Ofsted we've just had."

In January, the school was visited by Ofsted inspectors who were impressed with pupils respect for one another and the way they were supported during their time at Cressex.

Mr Hood added that under the Building Schools for the Future scheme, only certain materials can be used when constructing the new school to make sure it is environmentally friendly.

Staff, governors, county councillors and the Cressex community have already held meetings to discuss ideas about what the new school will look like.

A series of workshops are also taking place to decide what kind of landscaping and design the new school will include.

It is hoped when Cressex is finished it will become a model for future school building in the county.