On Friday 3oth June Linda Casey, Jack Wells, Paul Meredith (Surrey County Council) and Sue Stephens met to discuss the furniture and fittings which will need to be provided in the new school. This involved going through the plans room by room and assessing what could be moved from the existing site and what would need to be purchased. It is very important that this should be known well in advance so that costings can be made and orders placed in time for the school opening. We are insisting that quality should be a feature of everything which is purchased in order to avoid false economy!

On Wednesday 28th June Jack Wells and Sue Stephens went to Linden Bridge for a meeting with Anne Davis, Freemantles new Deputy Headteacher, Kevin Perren, the architect and project manager for the new school, Paul Meredith representing Surrey County Council, and representatives from a firm will supply under-floor heating to the new Freemantles. The purpose of the meeting was to look at the Linden Bridge Further Education department building which is now three years old. Anne has overseen the move into this building and is well aware of all the snags which have arisen. By touring the building and the surrounding outside area, we hoped to gain information which would help to avoid similar snags in the Freemantles building. It was a very useful and informative exercise.

Jack Wells, our site manager, has had the first site meeting with Willmott Dixon, the building contractors. At the meeting he found out the following information: Willmott Dixon are still very confident of being able to deliver the school on schedule, ready for September 2007. This is really good news. The existing children's homes on the site are scheduled for demolition, but obviously not until after the children have been re-housed. They are still resident at the moment and their environment is rapidly changing with the advancement of the building project. Willmott Dixon have invited them, with the staff of the homes, to visit the site regularly so that they understand what is going on and feel part of it while they still live there. Willmott Dixon have also invited Freemantles to provide some artwork which can be photographed and printed on the large site sign which will be erected at the edge of the site to display details of the project.

On Monday 19th June Ruth Buchan and Sue Stephens met with Seamus Gallagher from the Surrey Service Development Team and Lance Miles, Head of Residential Services, for further discussions on the linkage between the new Freemantles and the Respite Provision. There are many strategic and operational aspects which need to be planned, and this will be an ongoing process. At this meeting a timeline was drawn up to highlight when different actions need to be taken, in particular the recruitment of the new Care Manager and care staff.

This is an online news update about Freemantles School and its move to a new site at Mayford Green. Events and items of interest will be posted as they occur and you can log in at any time to view them.