FOLLOWING approval from the council, St Mark’s West Essex Catholic School, in Tripton Road, Harlow, is set for a major rebuilding project.

The project includes bulldozing and rebuilding all the school’s buildings except the sixth form building and the southern caretaker’s house reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

The plans include removing the original school buildings and modular classrooms, “which are no longer fit for purpose.” Two new buildings will expand the school’s teaching and study areas as well as provide new dining and assembly halls, a chapel, a sports hall, and support spaces. 

A new pedestrian entrance slightly north of the existing one off Tripton Road and changes to the existing entrance for vehicles are also included in the plans. 

A new car park layout with 75 staff spaces, as well as spaces for disabled people, minibuses, electric vehicle charging stations, and deliveries, is also proposed. There are also 225 cycle spaces for students and 35 spaces for staff. 

At its last inspection in 2017, Ofsted rated the school good with outstanding features. The school’s teaching capacity will not increase, remaining at 900 pupils, 225 sixth form pupils, and 151 spaces for special educational needs pupils. There are approximately 140 staff members. 

The development is set to take place in six phases, with several building and demolition phases, to minimise the use of temporary accommodation. During building phasing, a mobile classroom will be temporarily provided because the existing old mobile classroom is in too poor condition to be relocated.

The plans state: “The existing school buildings have reached the end of their lifespan, which has created an opportunity for developing new school facilities. The proposed site masterplan at St Mark’s has been developed to make the best use of the existing site features. One of the main benefits of the school redesign is consolidating the built footprint which maximises the benefit of the remaining space by reorganising and rationalising the site masterplan.