Kentish Express Ashford & District
Celebration as work on grammar school finishes
The Norton Knatchbull School in Ashford held a celebration to mark the completion of construction work.
Ashford MP Damian Green and the Mayor of Ashford, Cllr Winston Michael, gave speeches at the event where past students were also invited back to their former secondary school.
The event was held to celebrate the completion of Phase Two of the Premises Development plan at the grammar school.
Costing around £2.25 million, which was paid for through a grant from the Department of Education, the project of refurbishing the main building began in 2016.
Work was done on the Knatch Hatch dining space, the main hall, the gym, two computing rooms and the front entrance and main reception, including new windows, roofs, thermal insulation and cladding.
The work was intended to bring the original buildings from the 1950s up to date.
At the opening ceremony, and the first alumni event at the school, the buildings were officially unveiled to staff, representatives from the student council, sixth form prefects, alumni, contractors who completed the building works, spon- sors and members of the business community.
Guests then enjoyed tours of the school while lessons were taking place, heard music from students, saw the artworks exhibited, watched sports tournaments and heard from the current head teacher Susanne Staab.
A spokesman for the school said: “We were very excited about welcoming our alumni back and hope that this will be the first of many alumni events that will be held in the school.”