King James Academy Royston to reopen after storm damage

Pupils at King James Academy in Royston are resuming face-to-face learning tomorrow, after the school building was damaged by Storm Henk.

In January, the storm caused flooding in the main senior site teaching block, along with considerable damage to the roof and cladding. Since then, pupils in Years 7 to 10 have had to work from home, with the community rallying around to offer support and alternative learning opportunities. Temporary school buildings have now been set up on the playing field near Royston Leisure Centre, by contractors appointed by the Department for Education.

IMAGE: KJAR

Headteacher Lisa Plowman said: “We are really excited that we are close to getting the whole school community back together on the Garden Walk site after such a long period of time.

“It has been a challenge with my team split across upwards of five sites each day.

“With teachers and students doing a mixture of online and face to face learning.

“The quality of our temporary buildings are of an excellent standard and they will improve the facilities of our secondary pupils e.g. there will be break out spaces for key stages 3 and 4 and we will more than triple the number of welfare facilities on site.

“This is something that the student council has requested, but due to the historical design of the building, has not been possible to provide up until now.”

“I am very much looking forward to meeting Mr Richard Roberts, leader of the council this week to discuss our school’s facilities, the state of its buildings and some of the historical site issues which have affected our curriculum delivery curriculum in recent months.”

The roofing works and refurbishment of the buildings is expected to take around six months, with the start of the re-roofing initially delayed due to the weather.