Award winning Albion Primary School celebrates official opening

13 February 2019

Cllr Jasmine Ali, cabinet member for children, schools and adult care, was joined by Neil Coyle MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, to mark the official opening of Albion Primary School.

Albion Primary School in Rotherhithe, will now be able to accommodate 420 pupils after the school was completely rebuilt and modernised.  The quality of the new school as also been recognised in both regional and national level at the Local Authority Building Control Awards.

Investment by Southwark Council has led to the addition of another storey dedicated to Key Stage Two learning.

Thanks to the new construction, classrooms have been considerably expanded and have excellent acoustic and natural light levels to help every child get the most out of their day at school.  The extra space means that teachers now have more room to develop creative and engaging lessons for their pupils. Each classroom also has its own dedicated reading nook for literacy practice.

This extra space is not limited just to classrooms; children now have access to more outside areas and play space than they had previously. All classrooms on the ground floor feed out onto a central courtyard; while on the first floor each classroom has its own outdoor teaching area. These multi-use spaces can be used for open-air Science classes and reading groups in the summer.

Although the school has expanded considerably, parents and staff alike were keen to keep the ‘family feel’ of the school. Each teaching phase has four classrooms to ensure that younger children especially still felt part of the school community.

Southwark Council worked closely with the school to help them design a school that worked for them and their needs.  This means that teachers now also have functional spaces, such as a dedicated storage area for books as well as break-out spaces that can be used for one-on-one learning and group activities.

A new addition to the school is a space for creative learning, the studio has floor to ceiling windows and excellent acoustics that make it the perfect place for music, drama and dance classes. Along side the studio, Albion pupils also have a new double-height gym that can be used for sports, whole school assemblies and extended day care.

Making the most of every bit of space available was central to the redesign of the school and this extends to the roof. There is a new, fully accessible, roof terrace with an artificial grass playing pitch, which will be used as a further outdoor learning space but doubles as a play area.

Cllr Jasmine Ali, cabinet member for children, schools and adult care said: “One of the real stand-out successes of Southwark Council’s investments into local schools is that education teams have been able to create schools that fit their needs. At Albion Primary School, pupils and staff have a school that works for them. The school is really impressive and the investments from Southwark Council has helped provide an excellent space to teach and learn. Alongside the quality of the school, which has been recognised by industry bodies, there are now more, much needed primary school places. Thanks to the expansion of the school, I am pleased to say that Albion will now be able to welcome 210 more pupils through its gates.”

Karl Bardouille, Headteacher at Albion Primary School said: “Albion has worked closely with Southwark Council and the architects to ensure our children have the best possible facilities .We wanted to ensure that the new school would give the children bigger classrooms, a more accessible building and more common areas that would ensure the best opportunities to deliver our creative curriculum. We are all delighted with the extra teaching and learning space that will help us live up to our motto ‘Learn to do Well’”.

Page last updated: 13 February 2019