Opening of Belvidere School

Transcript

00:00I was contacted in about 2019 by the DfE to ask how we were maintaining our very old building

00:10and they got in touch about six months later after finding out how we were looking after

00:15the building to tell me that there was good news in the offing and early in 2020 we then had

00:22a visit from the DfE, they did a feasibility study and we got the exciting news that they were going

00:28to build us a brand new building and rebuild effectively the entire school which is a

00:32wonderful thing for the children. I think the biggest offering of this new building is an

00:36opportunity for change for the better and to really propel the community, the Belvedere community

00:42towards the future. We've got massive new IT capabilities, wide new spaces that the children

00:47are really enjoying so yeah it's just an opportunity to reset and really look forward towards the

00:52future. We're really thrilled that the government chose Belvedere you know and we're so very

00:58grateful for the gift that we have which is our school. Today I think that we want to say thank

01:05you to those people that have done that but I think also we want to look forward and we want

01:12to say to our students that we continue to be committed to them and their futures and we want

01:17them to flourish in their new school so it's a really exciting day for everybody at the trust.

01:23I came on a visit yesterday for example, I found the students really purposefully working,

01:28the accommodation is spacious, they have everything that they needed, very happy.

01:34New school uniform as well for their new environment. It's a lovely way for me to

01:41finish actually because I'm in the process of retiring now and having been associated with

01:45school now for 15 years it's really lovely that I'm finishing now at the time when the school

01:51has just had the massive lift of moving into these fantastic new facilities which they're

01:56going to have you know for decades to come so it's yeah it's made me really happy.