Schools' fantastic new facilities

Ali Powell • Published 22 Oct 2009 17:10 0 Comments

SCHOOLS Minister Vernon Coaker paid tribute this week to the joint drive of Kendrick School and Reading Girls' School to improve education in the borough.

At Kendrick he officially opened a new sixth form block, library, common room, teaching facilities and the state-of-the-art laboratories of the Faraday Building, and he then gave his blessing to the new £5.5 million learning centre at Whitley's Reading Girls' School.

He said: "The facilities at both Kendrick and Reading Girls' School are just fantastic."

The development is the fruition of the two-year-old Kendrick Federation. It means students at Reading Girls' can take sixth form courses at Kendrick, whose girls can undertake vocational courses at the Northumberland Avenue school.

The learning centre at Reading Girls' School has state-of-the-art accommodation for sixth formers and facilities for young mothers keen to return to education, purpose-built hair and beauty salons and facilities for young women who want to gain vocational qualifications in business and travel and tourism. The centre also has an on-site nursery for students with pre-school children.

Thames Valley University will run the courses at Reading Girls' post-16 learning centre, which has been funded by Reading Borough Council and the Learning and Skills Council.

Speaking during Tuesday's flying visit, Mr Coaker said: "What these facilities show is that these schools join together as a federation ensuring that all the girls achieve the very best that they can.

"For some it will be academic qualifications and for others it will be a mixture of academic and more practical qualifications.

"The important thing that the people of Reading will want to know is that standards are improving and that young people, whatever their background, whatever their ability, achieve the very best that they can.

"What the schools and the federation have done very successfully is to demonstrate that what it is about is appropriate curriculum for an individual pupil."

Marsha Elms, executive headteacher of the Kendrick Federation, said: "The benefits of working in close collaboration with other academic institutions will enrich the lives of the young women of our community."

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This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 22 Oct 09

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