I visited the Michaela Academy site at Arena House in Wembley Park yesterday and was concerned at the state of the building which 120 Year 7s are expected to attend in less than a month.
I am awaiting responses from Michaela and Wilmott Dixon, the builders, to my enquiries about building progress. (For response see
LINK)
Any delay will follow the failure of two other free schools, Gateway and Gladstone, to open in Brent in September, which left those Year 7 pupils to find places in other local schools.
On its website Michaela says:
Whilst the refurbishment of the entire building is scheduled to be
completed by early 2015, from September 2014 we will have the use of a
substantial portion of the site with all the necessary facilities and
resources to enhance the education of our first Year 7 pupils.
In our first year at Michaela we will only have 120 pupils and eight
teachers, and it has always been our intention to limit our use of the
building to the lower floors, with the upper levels opening as the
school grows.
The photographs below were taken yesterday evening and I leave readers to judge for themselves:
 |
| The 'playground' beneath the building |
|
 |
| A classroom? |
|
 |
| External view? |
|
Shambolic amateurism, the mark of the 'free' school and an integral part of Gove(r)'s legacy.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope the words quoted from the website were nothing to do with Michaela's English teacher(s). Leaving aside the estate agent's gentility of 'whilst', you can only 'enhance' something which is already good (something which we can only hope the new Yr 7 pupils' education will be but which it doesn't show much sign of being just at the moment).
Mike Hine
It looks as if my suggestion, a few months ago, that the Michaela school uniform from September should include a hard hat, was a sensible one!
ReplyDeletePhilip.
I also drove past this week and the building looks more like months away from finishing.
ReplyDeleteI will be amazed if they actually open on time.
Up the road with French school refurbishment of old town hall looks more activity than at Michaelas.
I bet contractors Michaela are on slow, as they probably underpriced to get work, but then will start charging extra to get job completed in time for school opening or part of a school with overtime once school starts.
Just my thoughts although could be wrong.
I walked past last week and no real change. Their website lists the start date as 15 September but meetings with families begin 1 September.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the start date has been pushed back, seems awfully late.