The residents of Mayford Green are now able to see what the school looks like as most of the hoarding has been taken down and replaced with fencing.

The relaxation pool now has an attractive roof. Inside the underfloor heating is being put in and the pool itself has been tiled.

In Ruth House lights have been fixed along the corridors.

We are now in the final stages of completing the building. A lot of work is being done to the outside areas. The final decorations are being done internally. Classrooms and communal areas have been fitted out with units. Lighting has been completed and there is now gas and electricity in the building. Sanitary ware is currently being fitted throughout the school.

This is a view of the outside of the secondary wing. All rooms will have shortly have fenced, hard surface areas for outside learning.

Last week we saw the wood ready to be installed into the reception office, this week, as you can see, it is ready for glass to be inserted.

The wood has arrived for the frames of the reception area where Pat and Jackie will work.

The inside of the school is coming on well. This is a picture of one of the classrooms.

The new Freemantles Topping Out Ceremony - buying the Time Capsule!

On Monday 4th June we celebrated the progress of the new Freemantles with a Topping Out Ceremony held in the courtyard of the school. It was hosted by Mark Tant, Managing Director of Willmott Dixon and Chris Anderson, the Operations Manager, and it was attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Woking, Andrew Crisp, the Surrey County Councillor for Education, respresentatives of the Mayford Residents' Association, Freemantles' Governors, supporters, staff and students. The students helped to bury a time capsule. They had spent time before half term deciding what items should represent Freemantles for posterity. The items they chose were: a Freemantles polo shirt, a Scissor Sisters CD, videotape of Woodlarks camp and Surrey Special Schools Ski Trip, a thumbnail photograph of every student in the school, a Thomas the tank engine video and a map of the world. It was a very good occasion and several of the students spoke about what they had put in the time capsule. We were very proud of them.

Social workers visit the site!

On 22nd May three social workers from the Complex Needs team donned the Willmott Dixon uniform, including reinforced boots, and joined Sue Stephens and Chris Anderson for a tour of Freemantles and Ruth House. They were delighted with the accommodation which will be available for respite at Ruth House.

The interior of the school is now almost completely plastered. This view of the long secondary wing shows how fit the staff and students will be when they cover the distance required to access the rooms. This corridor is almost one third of a kilometre in length!!

The first picture is the school building now complete with roof. The second is the main entrance to Ruth House House, facing away from the service area. The area in front of the entrance will be a garden, possibly with sensory aspects.

Lots of meetings about interior matters such as wiring and positioning within the specialist rooms. The Senior Management Team had an awayday last Saturday, 17th March, when we spent the whole day planning what the school will look like in terms of class bases, offices and specialist rooms. We have also started to plan routines - how the beginnings and ends of days will work and how lunchtime will be organised. It is becoming very real and very exciting. A letter is about to be sent out to parents to invite them to come and walk round the site on Saturday 21st April. Unfortunately, no children at this stage!

Quite a while since the last news because everything went a bit quiet over Christmas and there was a small delay in commencing the roof work because of the high winds in Wales which stopped the roof panels being loaded on to lorries. All this has been resolved now and work is going ahead apace. At a site meeting last Thursday we found that lots of progress had been made. The walls are just about finished, and there are rooms and corridors in the school. The Ruth House structure really is complete, with windows! Electrical work and plastering is going on inside it.