ROK secures £10m Grainville project

ROK secures £10m Grainville project

ROK Construction’s tender for £10,298,988.17 for the project at Grainville School has been signed off by Infrastructure Minister Kevin Lewis in a ministerial decision.

The project is the fifth and final phase of the redevelopment of the school, which began in the 1990s.

The final phase focuses on the west wing of the school and its Link Building and, once finished, will provide facilities for music, English, humanities and a number of special educational needs classrooms. It is estimated that the work will take around two years to complete.

Assistant head teacher Jonathan Kellett said an open evening was due to take place at the school next month to keep Islanders informed about the project, work on which is due to begin on Monday.

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‘It is an open invite to parents, governors, students and the local community to come and have a look and see how the school has developed over the five phases we have gone through,’ he said.

Representatives from ROK will also be in attendance to answer any questions, and plans for the work will be on display.

However, while the project will create a new music department, it does not contain provision for a dedicated building for the Jersey Music Service, as originally planned. The JMS works in partnership with schools to provide music lessons and improve access to musical experiences.

Funding for the phase-five development of Grainville was agreed in the last Medium Term Financial Plan, which set States spending for 2016-2019, as part of a £168m pot for capital projects.

That document said the work would include a new facility for the JMS – which at that stage was in unsatisfactory facilities at Fort Regent
– next door to Grainville, which would be used by the school during the day.

A spokeswoman for the Education Department said that element was no longer part of the plans.

‘The Grainville School project is the final development of a 20-year phased building programme. This phase will involve the creation of a new wrap-around building, providing state-of-the-art classrooms for English, humanities and modern foreign languages lessons,’ she said.

‘A new music wing will also be created, with a recording studio and practice rooms, as well as a new special educational needs department. Once the new facilities are ready, the old buildings and facilities connected to phase five will be demolished.

‘The development will cost nearly £15 million, and the main contractors will arrive on site next week to start the set-up and enabling works.’

She added: ‘The JMS are not part of these plans.’ However, at the time of going to print no explanation for the change had been provided.

The open evening starts at 6pm on 8 July in the main school hall.

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