THE official opening of the new library at Church Hill Middle School and a joint reception area with Abbeywood First School took place on Thursday 25th November.
The building project has been funded by Worcestershire County Council, to support a one-year bulge in local pupil numbers which has seen Central Region Schools Trust take an additional sixty pupils into year 5 across Church Hill Middle School and Ipsley CE RSA Academy.
Councillor Marcus Hart, cabinet member for education at Worcestershire County Council said: “The County Council are committed to improving facilities and provision across the County to ensure students are able to go on and achieve their full potential; the new Church Hill Middle School library in Redditch is another example of that.
“We are pleased to have worked closely with the Central Region Schools Trust to deliver this project.”
The project has been developed in the space that previously sat between the two schools.
“We have worked to bring the school communities of Abbeywood and Church Hill closer together since they joined our family of schools,” said Guy Shears, Executive Principal (CEO) of Central Region Schools Trust.
“This wonderful building sits at the heart of the shared site and enables even deeper connections between the two.”
Despite Church Hill offering many more places for the current Year 5, the school was still able to fill all places.
“It has been wonderful to see how well the extra two classes in Year 5 have settled in and made our school even more vibrant,” added Cherie Lewis, Head of School.
“We still pride ourselves on being a small, friendly school, even with our increased number of pupils as the popularity of the school has grown.”
The window coverings of the library feature a bespoke map of the local area, highlighting the importance of the relationship between the schools and their community.
The former library space is being redesigned to create additional, more flexible learning spaces within the main school building.
