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Hunloke School new classrooms open

A new £1.1 million development to replace and rejuvenate a fire damaged school has been officially opened.

"YES! The portakabins have been removed from the playground and now we have a much bigger space to play. After the crane took them away there were millions of balls that had been lost under the temporary classrooms. All the playground games that are painted on the playground have been uncovered - I had totally forgotten that they were there!"
Emily Brown (Y5).
Four classrooms and some neighbouring offices at Hunloke Park Primary School, Wingerworth, were destroyed by fire in September 2006.
Derbyshire County Council provided temporary classrooms while the fire damaged buildings were demolished and a replacement four classroom teaching block including library and toilets was built, along with a linked reception and administration building.
Costs of the work – which began at the Lodge Drive school in August last year and ended last month – were mainly covered by the authority’s insurers.
The official opening was performed by Councillor Joyce Sanders, chair of Derbyshire County Council on Friday (April 25) and attended by the authority’s cabinet member for schools, Councillor Alan Charles.
He said: “A fire in a school is always devastating, many staff lost resources that they had collected over their careers.
“As soon as the school was damaged the county council set to work to get new replacement buildings in place and began talks with the school to see what was needed from the new teaching areas.
“We used this opportunity to modernise these areas and provide even better classrooms and facilities so that something really good could come out of this.
“While everybody associated with Hunloke Park will always feel the devastation of the fire these new buildings will be a ‘silver lining’ for local children for a great many years.”
Further re-cladding and refurbishment work on parts of the school’s main building, which was not destroyed by fire, and internal refurbishment of the separate foundation block is still ongoing. The £488,000 project is being funded by the council.
Work has been carried out alongside the replacement of the fire damaged areas to minimise disruption for pupils and staff.
When the foundation block refurbishment is complete Wingerworth Pre-school Playgroup will use part of it as a base.
Headteacher Julie Cadman said: “The new buildings will breathe new life into the school and give the school an even better teaching and learning environment.
“With the playgroup joining us in the foundation block we will forge stronger links with the children and parents who use it and this will be a great benefit for the local community.”

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