This afternoon, Great Binfields Governors invited some special guests to celebrate the success and show gratitude for our new extension.  

As a school, we feel truly grateful for the wonderful building we have and firmly believe that it gives a warm, welcoming feel. Our wonderfully unique children and committed staff are the key contributors to the success of the school however our building is an asset for both school business and the wider community also. We believe that the characteristics of this building, effectively supports the improvement of our children’s learning experiences and it provides plenty of ‘Naturalness’ – a light airy feel in all of the rooms. Our building is individual – each Classroom has distinct design characteristics and has a sense of ‘Flexibility’ because of its large open plan feel with easy access to attached breakout spaces and a widened corridor for pupils' access and storage. We have been provided with well-defined learning zones that facilitate age-appropriate learning, plus big walled areas for displaying our children’s wonderful achievements. The room layouts, wooden ceilings and displays can catch our children’s attention but in balance with a degree of order - there is no cluttered feel and there is always a sense of calm even when it is line up time for lunch or getting ready for home-time!

But what is magnificent is that our fabulous new building and landscaping has a real connection with nature… a visionary aspect of our school ethos and curriculum where we want our children to develop a real love of the outdoor and therefore enhancing their day to day feeling of well-being.

GBP children present and future will benefit greatly from such a wonderful learning environment. We wish to acknowledge the hard work and support of all those who have been involved in this wonderful building project - you should all be so proud. It was also a pleasure meeting Mrs Carmel Gillies, wife of the late lovely Mr Alec Gillies, the lead architect for the original build of our main school. I was lucky enough to meet Alec when Fiona Burrows and Liam Presley (both HCC architects for our most recent expansion) ,first shared the plans for our extension many moons ago now. It was immediately clear that he had a real bond with our school and was very interested in ensuring that the extension blended in seamlessly. I think he would have been very proud of both Fiona and Liam. Mrs Gillies, kindly declared our extension as The Alec Gillies Wing and the plaque can be found in our new library area by the main office.

Mrs Janet Cullinane, our Chair of Governors and myself made short speeches and our guests enjoyed touring the new building as well as our existing building; talking to the children about their school as they walked through. We also enjoyed our GBP cake made my our special Mrs Tollett. The children each received a inscribed pencil to commemorate the event.