Work starts on Michael Faraday School

Construction work started on Michael Faraday School in July 2009 to transform it into a state of the art primary school, with increased places, expanded community facilities and a new integrated adult learning centre.


Aylesbury New Deal for Communities (NDC) and Southwark Council have together invested 11.9m to rebuild the school. The new design is by award-winning Alsop Architects, who also designed Peckham Library. The existing cramped and ageing structure will be replaced with a dynamic, circular two-storey building.

Karen Fowler, headteacher at Michael Faraday, said: "Our fantastic school community is now getting the building it deserves. Our new school is designed so that we can provide the best learning opportunities for our children, their families and others in the neighbourhood. This is life long learning in action!"

Richard McDermott, NDC Director, said: "We're delighted to see this inspirational new building going up on the Aylesbury. This new school will be a wonderful place for children to learn and begin to fulfill their dreams. The learning centre will not only provide an attractive and welcoming focal point for the community, it will also help many residents develop their knowledge, skills and careers. The NDC is extremely proud to be associated with this vital project."

Cllr Nick Stanton, leader of Southwark Council, said: "Southwark Council is committed to placing education for all at the heart of the Aylesbury regeneration project. Michael Faraday provides an outstanding education for local children and young people, and this redevelopment will make it an even better school for our young children and learning environment for the whole community."

The new school is one of the first activities of the Aylesbury regeneration project, which includes building over 5,000 new homes. Almost all of the children attending the school live locally and in social housing. The area has high levels of unemployed, lone parent families, many living in relative poverty or with low levels of education.

Despite these challenges the school was described as outstanding in every area in its 2007 Ofsted report and its pupils consistently achieve above the national average across the range of subjects.

The site is due for completion in 2010.

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