Transfer of Holyport Manor Special School to Cox Green

The Royal Borough is providing this web page to help ensure that local people have ongoing information about authorised activities that may be required in and around the area of the Cox Green school site during the course of the project. In addition to this webpage a newsletter will be delivered to properties in the vicinity of the Cox Green school to keep local people up to date with progress.

Pupils join topping out ceremony for new school building

Pupils from Holyport Manor Special School were guests of honour at a special ceremony to mark an important milestone in the building of their new school at Cox Green.

The Topping Out Ceremony - a traditional event that marks reaching the roof of the building - was carried out by the Mayor of the Royal Borough, Cllr Jesse Grey, along with the Holyport pupils, who poured symbolic oil, corn, wine and salt into the ground. The place was then sealed by Cllr Eileen Quick, the council's lead member for children's services. She used a ceremonial trowel presented by Mark Tant, managing director of Willmott Dixon Construction, the contractors building the new school.

The Mayor spoke of his pleasure at the progress being made on the new building, which will be taking its first pupils in September 2010, and congratulated everyone involved for their work in helping to provide a state-of-the-art school. He also thanked NHS Berkshire East for their partnership working with the Royal Borough to provide the new respite unit.

Cllr Quick said she was delighted to witness the vision of the new school becoming a reality. She was pleased to see pupils of Holyport Manor present at the ceremony so they could have a look around the building that would be their new school from next September.

Cllr Quick also paid tribute to the Cox Green and Lowbrook schools communities and highlighted how the education campus would bring benefits to all the schools involved.

Frances Larner, headteacher of Holyport Manor, thanked everyone involved in the new school for their care and attention to detail in providing a school of the future.

Guests at the ceremony included Cllr David Burbage (right), leader of the council, Cox Green ward councillors Vicky Howes, Emrys Richards and Bruce Adams, representatives of the campus schools and Ian Trenholm, council chief executive.

Topping out
Topping out takes place when the highest point of the building is reached. In Saxon times a yew tree branch was placed on the uppermost part of the building and then wine, oil, corn and salt were sprinkled on the roof - the wine symbolising wisdom and fertility, the oil liberty and prosperity, the corn abundance and the salt purity and hospitality.

Around the world topping out ceremonies vary but all most involve food, drink and a toast to the success of the project and the workforce.

School name
The new school at Cox Green will be called Manor Green.

The name was chosen by Holyport Manor as a combination of their current school name and the area in which they will have their new 'home'.

Planning approval for new Cox Green leisure centre

A new community leisure centre for Cox Green has taken a significant step forward, with final planning approval or reserved matters by Maidenhead Development Control (DC) Panel on Wednesday 29 April 2009.

The centre is to be built adjacent to the existing Cox Green School sports hall and community centre, with access from Highfield Lane towards the north-east of the site. Work should start in November 2009 and it is expected the centre will open to the public during the summer of 2010.

Cllr Simon Dudley, lead member for adult and community services, said he was delighted that work on the centre could now get under way.

He said: "This is a major step forward in the council's plan to give people in Cox Green convenient leisure and sports facilities. We believe the centre will offer new opportunities for staying fit and healthy and will be a boon for the local community."

All the new facilities will be available for local people as well as pupils and students at the two existing schools on the Cox Green campus and also for the young people attending the new Holyport Manor Special School, currently under construction and due to open in September 2010. They were proposed by the council following extensive consultation with local residents, community groups and site users.

The new leisure building will include a BodyZone fitness gym, space for a first floor dance studio and four team size changing room with showers - all of which will help extend sport and leisure provision for local people in the Cox Green area.

The existing small BodyZone gym and badminton courts will remain open through the building period. To book call 01628 777518.

A number of conditions were attached to the planning consent, including for example to ensure the building materials fit in with the local environment, that trees are retained and that a travel plan is in place to encourage centre users to leave their cars at home in favour of more sustainable means of transport.

Councillors get first-hand view of new special school

Around a dozen councillors got an update on building progress when they went on a site visit to the new special school at Cox Green (photo below).

The visit was designed to give them a first-hand view of the school layout and to speak to representatives of main contractor Willmott Dixon.

The Councillors were representatives of the Council's Steering Group that is driving the new-build project and also of the Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel, whose Chairman Cllr James Evans was present. Also there were headteachers and governors from the three local schools and Cllr Eileen Quick, Lead Cabinet Member for Children's Services, who said she had seen a great deal of progress since carrying out the initial ground-breaking ceremony just a month before.

Cllr Quick said: 'I think it's safe to say that all councillors on the visit were both impressed by the progress - even at this early stage - and enthused by the project overall.

The new school has a special place in all our hearts. Our aim is for it to be a centre of excellence, to provide a welcoming environment and to be a catalyst for shared educational opportunities across the Cox Green campus. This is an exciting time for all of us involved in education in the Royal Borough and we look forward with confidence to a new era of opportunities that will come with this replacement for Holyport Manor.'

Elevation drawings of the new school (pdf - please be aware this file is 2.7mb which may affect download).

Ground breaking ceremony for new special school

Cllr Eileen Quick, Lead Member for Children's Services, took part in the special ground-breaking ceremony at the new school site at the beginning of February when, despite the heavy snowfall, she cut the first turf to mark the start of the £24m project.

Opening in September 2010, the school - funded by the government's Building for the Future: One School Pathfinder programme - will be accessed via the newly-constructed road leading from Cannon Lane. It will cater for 150 children and young people aged two to 19 years and will offer new openings for sharing facilities and educational opportunities with the other schools on the Cox Green campus.

Cllr Quick said she was thrilled that, after all the months of planning, work was under way at last: "The ceremony to mark the start of work on this brand new school - the first completely new build school in the borough for many decades - was, quite literally, a ground-breaking occasion.

"This is an unparalleled opportunity to provide an amazing learning environment for young people with special needs on an existing education campus, with all the benefits of sharing facilities with other schools and the local community. September 2010 will be a landmark in educational development in the Royal Borough."

Mark Tant, managing director of main contractors Willmott Dixon Construction, presented an engraved spade for the occasion - now safely stored at Holyport Manor Special School which will be replaced by the new building in just over a year's time. Also present were Cliff Turner, the council's director of children's services, Chris Thomas, project manager for the new school, Robert Williams, chair of governors at Holyport Manor, and Ian Hylan, headteacher at nearby Cox Green School.

A revised planning application for the new respite unit is currently with the council's planning service. This is for a slightly reduced size of building (yet retaining all the proposed facilities) and the application will be considered by the Maidenhead Development Control Panel later this year.

Our photos show the ground breaking ceremony on 5 February 2009.

Community day for Cox Green opening

The welcome mat was out for a sunny Sunday afternoon of community fun that marked the official opening of Cox Green's brand new leisure facilities in February.

Cllr Simon Dudley, lead member for adult and community services, and Ian Hylan, headteacher of the nearby Cox Green School, performed the opening ceremony and their double act lifted the curtain on a programme of activities that included go-karting, a bouncy castle and face painting in the sports hall. The new all-weather pitch and recently levelled school playing fields were used for football coaching and match play for pupils and students at local schools. There was also an invitation six-a-six football tournament featuring teams from schools and local services.

Cllr Dudley said he thoroughly enjoyed the event which was a 'landmark occasion'. He said: "This is the first stage in the council's promise to give Cox Green additional leisure facilities right in the heart of the local community.

"They are providing even more access to leisure and recreational opportunities and, being right on the doorstep, they are only a stone's throw away for a large number of local people. I am delighted that since they opened in February the facilities are being well used and look set to be even more popular over the summer."

The new leisure facilities include:

• a floodlit all-weather pitch with 'third generation' surfacing that takes moulded studs and is therefore suitable for football as well as other outdoor team sports
• facilities at Cox Green School sports hall for five-a-side football, basketball, badminton and a climbing wall, bookable for evening and weekend use
• the school's grass pitches - already used by external groups - now levelled and laid with new turf
• the school's changing rooms and toilets now open and staffed for evening and weekend use
• a fully-staffed SHOKK gym open five nights a week, with weekend openings also available
• gymnasium available for trampolining, gymnastics, aerobics and for hire.

If planning permission is granted, work will start later this year on a new leisure block linked to the existing Cox Green School sports hall and scheduled to open next year.

Our photos show the official opening ceremony including the presentation of the trophy to the winning youth football team - Woodlands Park - during the open afternoon.

Further Information

If you would like any further information about the development of the new school for pupils and staff of Holyport Manor School at Cox Green please contact the Project Manager:

Chris Thomas
Head of Housing Policy and Residential Development
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
St Ives Road Maidenhead
SL6 1RF
Tel: 01628 796270
Email chris.thomas@rbwm.gov.uk

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