A secondary school in Purley has succeeded in bidding for almost £3million from the Government to build a new drama and arts centre – one of the biggest grants handed to any educational centre in the country.
Riddlesdown Collegiate in Honister Heights applied for capital funding from the Department of Education and was awarded £2.9million. In total, there were 1,110 projects across the country given funding from a £325million Government pot.
Creating
The school will be creating a new dance studio, a drama school complete with mod-cons like soundproofing and new lighting systems, and a new art room.
The school's head, Gordon Smith, said staff and students are delighted with the news.
"We are overjoyed that the DoE has accepted our bid to build a new block. With this additional funding, we can now invest in creating a more sophisticated and tailored facility for our art, drama and dance students," said Mr Smith.
"We have housed our art centre in temporary buildings for four years and it just does not match the standard of our teaching and pupils.
"We were granted status as an academy last year and this has allowed us to apply for the funding directly from the government.
"It would have been impossible to get this kind of money from Croydon Council, who are already hard-pressed. We would not have been a priority.
"I think becoming an academy is the only mechanism to get this kind of significant capital funding and have greater control over budgets and opportunities."
The school caters for almost 2,000 pupils and became an academy in June last year, taking it out of Croydon Council's control and responsibility.
The school's head of performing arts, said that the new building will have a huge impact on the students.
"The students will have access to state of the art facilities and equipment that will not only motivate them but will also aid their future performances; they are so excited to see what their new classrooms will look like."
The new building, which will be ready for students to use in the spring of 2014, is being worked on during the school holidays in order to cause as little disruption as possible during term time.
Helen Lye, the school's head of marketing, said staff had chosen to apply for the funding because their art centre was housed in temporary buildings and the drama facilities were "not good enough", with leaking ceilings and out-of-date sound and lighting systems.
