What better way to open the new Upton Heath Church of England Primary School on the 11^th November than with a Remembrance Day service!

We invited Reverend Paul Newman, ‘captain’ Dave and Barbara Capstick from Holy Ascension to lead the service. As a church school, the team at Holy Ascension visit Upton Heath each week for collective worship, but this was an extra special service to mark both Remembrance Day and our new school.

Reverend Newman commented: “For the new Upton Heath to open on Remembrance Day was extremely special. We were able to give thanks to the fallen heroes who enabled us to be here today to celebrate our new day, and our new school.”

The new Upton Heath is double storey (with lift) and features a double height atrium with library and computer area, a studio space suitable for indoor PE and dance, a dedicated design technology space, interactive touchscreens in the classrooms, sound boards for easier communication in the main hall and classrooms, filtering systems for optimum air quality, a fully accessible toilet with hoist, and adjustable lighting to create ambience at different learning times.

Mr Oakes, Facilities Manager for The Samara Trust, secured funding for lots of wonderful new furniture and equipment for our school. This equipment, which includes ovens in the design technology space, means we can offer even more learning opportunities for our pupils. Mr Oakes is based at Upton Heath and has been instrumental in all aspects of the build.

Our older children’s classrooms are located on the upper level of the building (year 4 and 5 with one year 3 class), with year 2 and the rest of year 3 on the lower level. The views out over to our in house forest school provision Branching Out and Branching Out Training are wonderful.

EYFS, year 1 and Upton Village Pre School remain in their regular classrooms in the newest part of the old school building. A link will eventually join the two buildings together.

We also invited our builders from Wates Construction to our Remembrance Day service, where they were invited by Reverend Newman to light our first worship candle in the new school.

Even though we are in our new school building, work will still continue on landscaping the outside spaces and we are looking forward to our official opening ceremony in summer 2019.

Due to the new build, our open days for prospective parents/carers are a little later this year on the 18^th, 19^th November and 3^rd December. Visitors for the open day can access the new school building through the usual entrance on Upton Lane, where a walkway has been created round the old school to the new school building. So that we can plan groups for tours, we ask that you please call 01244 972970 to reserve your place for our open days.