£38 million education pod ends with a plod

The Sussex school was one of beneficiaries of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme of the Labour government, which showcased its new style school in 2010, following three years of planning and construction. Students were to enjoy the splendours of Scandinavian study through the implementation of ‘education pods’ - a prime example of open plan learning that could contain 90 students and a team of teachers.

The school are once again the recipients of Department for Education expenditure, as it was announced that Bexhill High School will receive £6 million of funding from the Priority School Building Programme. Principal Heidi Brown said that the funding will help to reverse a decline which saw the school placed into special measures in April 2013.

The academy is currently using 8ft dividers to split each pod into three, but sounds still carry from one makeshift classroom to the next. Mrs Brown said: “We are now able to redesign the building in order to provide classrooms of 30 rather than 90; and provide more traditional acoustically independent classrooms benefiting from up to date technology so that students and teachers can hear what is being said in lessons and participate in the learning experience.”

Tom Atwood, chairman of the schools sponsor Atwood Academies, said: “The people of Bexhill and more particularly the children of Bexhill have in recent years been let down badly by an ill thought out building design and worse a dreadful implementation of the new build. We can now put all this behind us and get on with providing the world class space for teaching and learning that these children deserve.”

The £6 million refit would also include giving the academy more than one science laboratory and a school library which is spaced more appropriately for children to sit down and read books.