When work will start on Glossopdale School extension

A council has revealed when work on a major Derbyshire secondary school extension will take place.

Derbyshire County Council approved plans in May for a 240-place extension for Glossopdale School in Hadfield.

Work on the extension is now set to start in January with an aim to complete the project by December 2021, it has revealed.

This is when “practical completion” by Henry Brothers Limited is expected, with further works to kit out the building with equipment including chairs and tables, to make it into a school block, to follow.

The new extension came after a flurry of complaints from parents about the 1,200 capacity school, then recently finished at a cost of £23 million, did not have enough pupil spaces.

They had feared friendship groups would be divided if the school could not cater for all of the pupils in the catchment area.

In response, the council approved plans for the school, which opened in 2018, to gain a new £4 million extension built to take its maximum capacity to 1,440.

Some external works to the main building are still ongoing two years on, the council says, with some delays caused by the pandemic.

The county council hopes the increased 1,440 capacity will remain the maximum, without the need for further extensions, despite a number of already approved and planned housing developments in the area which will bring in more families.

The extension, approved in May, will include a separate two-storey classroom block to the south west of the main school complex, stretching towards Mouselow Close.

It would be “nestled” onto an existing bank on the south side of the school and pupils would be able to access it through the top floor, passing under a covered walkway close to the main complex.

There would also be an outdoor stairway down to the playground and fields below.

The new teaching block would face out onto a new hard-surfaced playground with three court areas marked out.

Main image:

An artist impression of what part of the school extension will look like (from DLA Architecture).