Felpham school buildings to be connected: “It will make a big statement”

Permission has been granted for a project to build a covered corridor at Bishop Tufnell Primary School at Pennyfields, Felpham, which will cost around a quarter of a million pounds.

The corridor will link together the former junior school and infants school, which had operated separately until they amalgamated into one primary school in September 2018.

Nick Sharp, who became headteacher at the school at this time, said the school worked as one, with teachers working across both buildings – but that the physical layout meant it felt ‘a bit disjointed’.

But now a new covered corridor measuring ten to 15 metres long will be created to link the two buildings, which Mr Sharp said would be ‘fantastic’.

“It will be much more than a corridor, it will make a big statement that we are one school,” he said.

“It’s all very exciting. We are working really hard to bring the buildings together. This will make a physical statement.”

It means the school will now have a single entrance, rather than two.

Mr Sharp added: “We are also finally going to get all the staff together into one staff room.”

At the moment, some members of staff ‘rarely see each other’ so creating a space for everyone to mix and talk together would be beneficial, he said.

The work will also involve ‘internal alterations’ which combine the administration areas, according to the planning application.

The plans have been approved by Arun District Council and builders are already at the school site, with the work set to officially begin on January 2.

The building work is expected to last until the Easter holidays.

While Mr Sharp said it would be ‘fairly disruptive for a term’, he said: “It will be worth it.”

Pupils would not be affected as the work would not involve their classrooms, he added.

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