New School - Community Update
July-August 2011
Construction Site Progress
Progress through July and August has been good and the construction phase remains on course for completion at the end of March 2012. Here are some recent photographs of the site:
'Topping-Out' Ceremony in July (Completion of highest point of building) 
View of Upper Level hall & kitchen
View of the Upper Level 3, Main Teaching block
View of level 3 infant block
View from level 2
View from level 1(Leisure)
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Dining Hall
Middle Coed Cae Road – removal of wall and widening of footpath
Amphitheatre
MUGA (Multi-Use Games Area)
New School Opening
The new school, Blaenavon VC Heritage Primary School, opens in name only in September 2011 and while the construction phase remains on track, the school should open its doors at the start of the summer term 2012.
The school website is now up and running and can be accessed under the ‘Headteacher’s Update|' area of the website.
Primary Care Resource Centre
This has now been given funding approval from the Welsh Government to proceed and the Council will be working with the Aneurin Bevan Health Board and its developers as they kick-off the project. Initial indications are that the construction phase may commence at the end of March 2012.
The centre will house a doctors surgery, a dental practice, a pharmacy and some multi-use shared rooms for other Health Board, Council and Community Services.
June 2011
Progress continues to be excellent and the latest construction photographs are below.
May 2011
Progress continues to be excellent as the following photographs highlight.
The contractor's resident evening was held on 16th May and attended by a few residents who neighbour the construction site. No major issues were raised and the next residents evening is planned for September. The date will be advised nearer the time.
The Shadow Governing Body ratified the school logo in three versions - English|, Welsh| and bilingual|. The logo will be displayed on the school uniform and all school stationery and signs.
April 2011
Progress continues to be excellent as the following photographs highlight.
Children of the existing three schools received a special visit from Kieran the Builder during April. Kieran explained the dangers of building sites and that they're not playgrounds.
The Contractor, Kier Western, will be hosting another residents' evening on
Monday 16th May 2011 at 6.00pm for those residents who live close to the development to raise any queries or concerns. Details are contained in a
newsletter| that has been distributed to neighbouring homes.
March 2011
Progress has been excellent over the last month and remains on target for a March 2012 completion. All steelwork is nearing completion and floors are being laid. Roof works are underway. Internal drainage is being installed and external wall and window installation has started. Two attenuation tanks (to hold rain water and release it slowly to the surrounding storm system) have been installed.
The planning application for the CCTV and car park lighting was granted and works on the car park can now be completed.
The school council and governors have determined the new school colours - Royal Blue and Yellow - and chosen a school logo. The logo was an amalgam of two pupils work and reflects the town's heritage. First indications of how the new logo| will look have been produced and design work continues.
The most exciting news during the month was the appointment of the new Head teacher - Mrs Deb Woodward. Deb is currently the Headteacher at Pontnewynydd Primary School and she has already written an introductory letter| to parents. We very much look forward to working with Deb between now and school opening.
February 2011
The overall programme is still on target for a March 2012 completion. The steelwork frame for the main school building is complete and the steelwork frame for the nursery has been erected. The nursery roof is being installed and all external drainage has been completed
The retaining wall for the Flying Start playdeck is being completed. The sprinkler tank for the school will sit within this structure and be accessible from beneath the playdeck.
Public consultation for the CCTV and car park lighting has been completed and no objections were received. Determination of the application is therefore expected in the near future.
January 2011
The overall programme is still on target for a March 2012 completion. The new electricity sub station is being installed and the steelwork frame for the main building is also being erected.
The planning application for the car park lighting and school CCTV was submitted before Christmas and is currently subject of public consultation. The planning application can be viewed at County Hall, Cwmbran. Copies of the main plans can be viewed here:
During this half-term, the school will be consulting with parents and children, and running a competition to determine the new school uniform colours and the new school logo.
The closing date for the new head teacher's position was 31 January 2011. The shadow governing body will undertake shortlisting on 17 February and will undertake interviews on 21st and 22nd March. It is anticipated the new head teacher will be appointed for a 1st September 2011 start.
The Executive Member has agreed the new school will open, in entity, from 1 September 2011. That is, the children will attend the new school, under a new head in their new uniform but on the existing school sites until the new school building is ready. A
letter| to this effect has recently been circulated to parents.
December 2010
The early cold snap delayed some planned concrete pours for the retaining walls so these have suffered a short delay. Retaining wall work has now resumed and the overall programme is still on target for a March 2012 completion.
Works to the car park have progressed well but cannot be completed until the planning application for the car park lighting has been approved. That application will be submitted in the very near future. In the meantime, the car park will be made good and serviceable in time for Christmas and access to residents properties will be maintained at all times.
The second
residents open evening| was held on 13th December 2010. A further open evening will be planned for May 2011. The open evenings offer residents who neighbour the development an opportunity to hear about progress and more importantly raise any concerns or issues. A flyer advertising the event will be delivered to neighbouring properties and a copy posted on this website.
During the Christmas and New Year holidays, if you have any concerns about the site or see anything suspicious, please call the council on 01495 762200. The council will be holding a list of emergency contacts and can pass on any information or concerns to the relevant people. If a serious situation arises or one that could cause harm, then please call the police directly.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
October 2010
Construction continues to progress well and the project is on still on target for a March 2012 completion. The vibro piling is now complete and the foundation and retaining wall work is progressing. The new school perimeter fence is also being installed and will shortly be complete.
The work to provide an enhanced car park in place of the old leisure centre car park is underway. This work will be undertaken in five phases to reduce the impact on residents whose properties are accessed from the car park. The car park works are anticipated to be finished by Christmas.
The open evening for immediate residents was attended by approximately 20 people. A précis of the comments raised is contained within the latest newsletter from Kier Western, which is available by following the link on the left.
During September and October, the children from Hillside Nursery, Hillside Primary and St Peters painted hoarding boards to decorate the construction hoarding of their new school. In the next few months, viewing windows will be made so they can watch it being built.
August 2010
Construction continues to progress well as the following photographs show.
From 13th September, an operation known as vibro piling will be undertaken for about two weeks. The operation will be undertaken between 8am and 6pm and provides the underlying structure and security for the foundations. Vibro piling is a quieter and less obtrusive process than traditional driven piling.
On 20th September, Kier Western will be hosting a residents open evening at the site for any immediate neighbours who may have construction related queries or concerns. A flyer| has been distributed to advertise the event.
July 2010
Construction is underway with the site being made ready by the contractors. Heras fencing has been erected, which will be followed by solid hoarding. Welfare units and offices will soon be delivered and once these are connected to water and electricity, work can begin in earnest. The first major construction work is anticipated to start in early to mid August. Monthly progress photographs will be posted to the website.
On 5 July 2010, a sod cutting ceremony was held to mark the start of construction on the school and leisure element of the Blaenavon Community Campus. The event was attended by Carl Sargent AM, Minister for Communities and Local Government, local dignitaries, governors, teachers and children from the three existing schools.
June 2010
The name for the new Blaenavon school has been chosen! A competition was held with the children of all three existing schools to choose a name for their new school. A number of suggestions were made and all entries were 'judged' at a joint school council meeting where four favourites were chosen. These four favourites were voted upon by the children. The final name chosen by the Executive Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Mary Barnett is:
Blaenavon Heritage VC Primary School
This was an amalgam of the top two favourite suggestions chosen. The children who suggested these two names were awarded with a special part in the sod cutting ceremony!
May 2010
Pre-commencement works continue and the following photographs show latest progress.
In readiness for the start of construction in early July, the contractor, Kier Western, will be preparing the site. This involves fencing the area off and installing their construction compound and site offices.
A newsletter| is being circulated to all immediate neighbours of the construction site advising that the site set-up will be taking place and showing photographs of what to expect.
April 2010
Pre-commencement works started in March and are well underway, with an anticipated completion by the end of May. The following photographs show progress to date:
The public planning event was well attended on 24 March 2010 and no objections to the application were received. On 20 April, the planning committee unanimously approved the detailed planning application. Work is scheduled to start on site early July and further details will be posted to this website in due course.
March 2010
On 1 March 2010, the reserved matters planning application was submitted for approval. It is hoped that the application will be considered by the 20th April Planning Committee. This committee is open to the public to attend. The meeting starts at 4pm and is held in the Council Chamber in the Civic Centre Pontypool.
Until then, the statutory planning process is underway and letters will have been posted to immediate neighbours of the development making an offer for them to view plans at County Hall. Requests have been received for these plans to be available in Blaenavon Library and this request has been forwarded to the Planning Department for their consideration.
To complement the statutory process, a public planning event will be held on
Wednesday 24 March 2010
between 4pm and 7pm
at Blaenavon Workmen's Hall
A
flyer| advertising this event has been displayed throughout the town.
The event will provide the community with an opportunity to view the plans and provide comments, which will be forwarded to the Planning Officer for them to include in the report submitted to the Planning Committee, where the comments are relevant to the planning application.
You can view some of the plans on this website. Provided here is:
The planning application includes many more plans and supporting documents which are required to support the planning application and that cannot be displayed on this website due to their size.
28 February 2010
Consultation on the new school designs was undertaken with teachers and governors in January and the designs changed as a result of comments received. The consultation event had to be re-arranged due to the weather and therefore the planning application will be submitted on 1 March 2010. If all goes well, the application will be heard in April and construction of the new school can start in June.
A public planning event will be held between 1 March 2010 and the application being considered by the Planning Committee in April and details of this event will be widely advertised and placed on the project website.
The pre-construction works of re-aligning a local footpath, widening the footpath on the highway and other highway works that were a condition of the outline planning permission granted in the summer of 2009 will commence shortly. A residents' newsletter| explaining the planned works was circulated to residents in the immediate vicinity.
31 December 2009
The Minister's decision| was received early in December. The Minister has determined that the three existing schools should close and be replaced with a new school as proposed|. Further, she determined that the new school should have Voluntary Controlled Status. The original notification conditioned the decision on receiving planning by 31st December 2009, however, this did not leave sufficient time for the statutory planning process or consultation with teachers, governors and residents and a modification| to this condition was received.
A consultation event is being held for teachers and governors on 14th January 2010 and a public event will be held as part of the planning process as soon as possible to enable planning to be submitted in time to meet the March committee dates. It is still intended that construction will commence in Spring 2010.
A footpath that currently runs between the existing football and rugby pitches on the recreation ground will be realigned in the spring. This drawing| shows what is planned and a leaflet drop is scheduled for residents local to the footpath in advance of the realignment works. Throughout realignment, a footpath will be maintained for community use.
31 October 2009
Design work is still progressing and consultation has started with educational officers. Consultation with the staff and governors will be undertaken once the Minister's decision has been received and this is due on 20th November. Planning will be submitted thereafter and we are still on programme to start construction in the spring 2010.
31 August 2009
Design work on the new school and leisure elements has progressed well and it is anticipated that consultation will be undertaken with staff and governors in October. Consultation with the public will be undertaken as part of the planning process and will include site management during construction. It is still anticipated that a full planning application will be submitted in November.
31 July 2009
The statutory objection period ended on 20th July. Fourteen letters of objection were received and a full file of all correspondence relating to the school closures has been forwarded to the Welsh Minister responsible for Education. She will determine whether the proposals being made by the council are acceptable and this decision is anticipated by Christmas. In the meantime, and to ensure the overall programme is not delayed, design work will continue. It is intended that a full planning application will be submitted for the school and leisure elements of the campus in mid November.
31 May 2009
On 12th May, Cabinet agreed to close Hillside Nursery, Hillside Primary and St Peters Church in Wales Primary Schools and open a new school with nursery unit. The new school will have voluntary controlled status. A copy of the report and minutes is available on the council's website under the 'council and democracy' tab.
Notices were placed at the schools and in a local newspaper on 20th May and there now follows a 2 month objection period, which ends on 20th July. Should anyone object to this proposal, the matter will be referred to the Minister for Education to determine.
Meanwhile, updated concept drawings have been passed to the council's appointed architects and will be worked up into more detailed designs and options for consideration and further consultation.
Consultation with the children of both primary schools using the medium of play has now concluded and their ideas and drawings will be submitted to the architects as part of the design process.
31 March 2009
The statutory consultation on the proposal to close the three existing schools and provide a new school will conclude on 3rd April 2009. All comments received will be incorporated into a report to be considered by Cabinet at its meeting on 12th May 2009. This meeting is open to members of the public to observe (10am, Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Pontypool). A copy of the Cabinet report will be posted to the website once it is in the public domain.
The first round of consultation with children using the medium of play was held at Hillside Primary school on 11th March. Follow-up consultations have been arranged in both schools during April.
28 February 2009
The statutory consultation on closure of the three existing schools to build and open a new school for the Blaenavon community is underway. Meetings for staff, governors and parents/public have been arranged for March.
The first round of consultation with children, using the medium of play, was held at St Peters Primary School on 24th February. A date has been set for Hillside Primary. Children from both schools will be visited again to go into more detail on the design of the new school.
31 January 2009
Letters about the statutory consultation on the new school will be distributed just before and just after the half-term break.
Three public meetings have been organised for parents/guardians and other interested members of the public:
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6.30pm, 10 March – Hillside School
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6.30pm, 12 March – St Peters School
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6.30pm, 16 March – Blaenavon Workmen's Hall
These public meetings will give members of the community an opportunity to provide their views and comment on the proposal to close the three existing schools and build a new one.
Earlier meetings will be held on the first two dates for teachers, staff and governors.
The consultation will run until 3 April and a report submitted to the May Cabinet.
The consultation with the school children using the medium of play to obtain their ideas for the design of the new school, the right mix for the leisure elements and the relocation of the playground has been arranged for mid to late February; the snow meant that these events had to be re-scheduled.
In addition, a meeting has been organised with the three existing school heads to re-visit the design vision for the school so that conceptual drawings can be prepared by the end of February.
31 December 2008
Cabinet met on 9 December and agreed that statutory consultation should be undertaken on closing the three schools in Blaenavon in order to build a new school.
It is intended that the statutory consultation will be undertaken early in the spring term with a report to Cabinet by the end of March 2009.
Cabinet also agreed in principle that the status of the new school should be voluntary controlled but recognising the poor response rate from the ballot of parents, teachers and parents of pre-school age children, requested that the question of status be further posed during the statutory consultation.
The school children of Blaenavon will be consulted on their ideas for the design of the new school during January and February, through the medium of play.
Experienced play workers will attend each of the three schools for half a day in January and again for half a day in February to take forward the children's themes.
30 November 2008
We met with Governors from Hillside Nursery, Hillside Primary and St Peters Primary on 14 October to discuss and agree the letter and information to parents about the status of the new school.
The final letter, information and ballot paper were sent to:
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The registered parents of children who currently attend Hillside Nursery, Hillside Primary and St Peters Primary;
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Parents of pre-school age children who may in future attend the school; and
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Governors and teachers of all three schools.
Copies were also given to health visitors for them to pass on to very recent parents.
Ballot papers could either be returned directly to the Education Authority in a provided envelope or placed in ballot boxes at either one of the three schools or Blaenavon Library. The ballot took place between 17 October and 7 November.
A short report| has been written to provide the details of the result of the ballot. In summary, a very marginal preference was expressed for a voluntary controlled school.
A report will be submitted to the 9 December Cabinet meeting seeking agreement to undertake statutory consultation on closing the three existing schools and building a new 450-place primary school plus 130-place nursery. The report will state that the Council is minded that the new school should have voluntary controlled status.
The meeting will be held at the Civic Centre in Pontypool and can be observed by members of the public.
16 October 2008
We met with Governors from Hillside Nursery, Hillside Primary and St Peters Primary on 14 October to discuss and agree the letter and information to parents about the status of the new school. The final letter|, information and ballot paper are being sent to:
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The registered parents of children who currently attend Hillside Nursery, Hillside Primary and St Peters Primary;
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Parents of pre-school age children who may in future attend the school; and
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Governors and teachers of all three schools.
Copies will also be given to health visitors for them to pass on to very recent parents.
Ballot papers can be placed in a ballot box at either one of the three schools or at Blaenavon Library, or they can be returned directly to the Education Authority in the envelope provided. Ballot papers should be returned by 7 November 2008.
The ballot result will be given to the schools and posted to this website on 17 November. The final decision on the status of the new school will be based on a number of factors and the ballot result will be considered as part of that process.
Cabinet will agree the status and decide to undertake statutory consultation on 9 December. The public can observe this meeting.
31 July 2008
One of the items to be considered before opening the new school will be its status. Currently, Hillside is a community school, which means it is run by the Local Education Authority. St Peters is a voluntary controlled school with a faith character, Church in Wales. A decision will need to be made as to whether the new school should be a community school or a voluntary controlled school.
In order to inform the decision-making process, a ballot will be held to ask existing and future parents (and the teachers) their view on what they would prefer.
This ballot is not statutory but the Authority feels it is an important step in involving the community in the process of providing a new school and nursery.
On 1 and 3 July, the proposed ballot letter was shared with the Governors of Hillside and St Peters respectively.
The Governors felt the letter should be re-drafted to make it more objective and also suggested that the ballot should be held for the whole community as the school would be a community resource.
This suggestion is being fully considered and the letter is currently being re-drafted ready for representation to the Governors early in the new school term.
30 June 2008
A workshop was held with key Council education workers, the head teachers and the Chair of Governors of the three schools in Blaenavon to consider the Design Brief for the new school.
The Design Brief will set out how the school should look and feel and what each area should contain in terms of equipment and facilities. It is important that the end users of the school make their contribution to the Design Brief, which will also receive contributions from other key Council areas such as highways and transportation.
A play event is also planned for the children of the schools to provide their view on how they want their new school to look and feel.
31 May 2008
An initial and very early indication from the architects is that a two-storey school will make the best use of the site. Such a building will be sympathetic to the local landscape. Consultation will be undertaken with education colleagues and the wider community in due course.
30 April 2008
A number of meetings were held with education colleagues, the headteachers of the nursery and the two primary schools and adult education to discuss what will be provided in the new school.
This resulted in a schedule of accommodation that has been forwarded to the architects for them to begin the design process.
29 February 2008
The size of the new primary school has been under discussion for some time. Initially, it was planned to be a 420-place school.
However, following further forecasting work by colleagues in Education on birth rates, new housing development, migration into the area and anticipated parental choice, it was decided that the school should be a 450-place school.
Forecasting the number of school places that will be required is not an exact science and many things can change between now and when the school is open in 2012 but with all the information currently available it is felt that a 450-place school will meet current and anticipated demand.
The nursery school will remain as a 130-place nursery.