Celebrating topping out at The Bridge School

Students and staff at a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) secondary school in Ipswich are celebrating the latest milestone in works to transform their school’s facilities. The major redevelopment programme for The Bridge School will comprise a brand new state-of-the-art secondary school building with six classrooms.

The building will also house a hydrotherapy pool and two sensory needs rooms, as well as music, food tech and art teaching rooms. The new secondary school will be on the same site as The Bridge’s primary school, which was built in 2014, with the aim to provide the students with a smooth transition between primary and secondary education.

Steve Holt, framework manager at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “We are delighted to have reached this milestone in the development of The Bridge School, which will help to bolster SEND provision in the area, and provide a first-class education to school users. Morgan Sindall Construction has a long-standing history of producing high quality SEND facilities, and we are looking forward to continuing our close relationship with Concertus and Suffolk County Council to deliver this for The Bridge.”

Hazel Simmons, headteacher at The Bridge School, said: “This fantastic new school building is a desperately needed facility for the Ipswich community. I am thrilled with the quality of the building and would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this project, including the project teams, Suffolk County Council and the charities for their substantial donations that will allow us to kit some of the specialist rooms out.”

The scheme is being delivered in partnership with Concertus Design and Property Consultants Ltd.

Charles Coulson, Associate at Concertus, said: “We are thrilled to be working with Morgan Sindall Construction and Suffolk County Council to help deliver this great project for Unity Schools Partnership and the local community. Although the construction hasn’t completed just yet, we are confident that the new school building will be a great benefit to the children studying at The Bridge and look forward to being able to hand it over for them to enjoy.”

The new building is expected to be ready for hand over to the school in July, with the demolition of the existing accommodation and landscape works taking place in Spring/Summer 2021.