THE headteacher of a Somerset school dealing with structural issues in one of its buildings said progress has been made and has shared details about the new organisation.

The Kennion block at The Blue School in Wells lost the use of 20 classrooms after a structural study “uncovered a major problem” including “significant cracking amongst all the concrete floors”.

Headteacher Mark Woodlock said “much seems to have happened” since he last addressed parents and carers.

He shared updates which include a new timetable for the secondary school’s pupils while adding that “additional structural investigations are required and those are booked in”.

He said: “I am writing to update you on the progress that we have made with the issues with our Kennion buildings.

Maths have moved out of Kennion and are now based in classrooms at the northern end of Milton block.

“This includes some of the drama, English, and MFL spaces.

“It is important to say that this is not all maths lessons, but the department is based in that area and is using the old changing rooms as their office space.

“Drama has vacated its classroom spaces in Milton but has retained the teaching use of Milton Hall. Other than Milton Hall, it is mostly based in the Dance Studio.

“Science has moved out of the old labs. They have retained the new labs but are also using Kennion Hall as a joint teaching space for two classes.

“These ‘double’ science classes are large in size, but will continue to have two teachers with them and additional support. When students need to undertake experiments, they will move back to the labs.

“RP have stayed in the same location in Barkham, but one of the classrooms has been divided into two smaller rooms that will be used for sixth form classes (from any subject).

“PE (BTEC theory lessons) have moved to M28 in Milton. PE practical lessons remain in the same place as previously.

“These changes have resulted in the displacement of a large number of other classes from a variety of departments.

“Hence, all students will find some of their classes in unusual places. All students in school today have been reissued with a new copy of their timetable.

“Years 7 and 8 will have their timetables reissued on Monday.

“The students still retain the same lessons at the same time as they had previously, but the location of many of their classes will have changed.

“There is no access through Kennion block and so we have asked the students to use the top road, behind Barkham and the netball courts, to access music and science.

“After their lesson, they can then exit the block through Atom café. Access to history, geography and the PE changing rooms remains through Kennion corridor.

“Year 9 have moved to an early break/lunch in Bailey. Next week, Year 7 and 8 will both use Bailey and Milton for break and lunch.

“This means that we now have no social/food space in Kennion. The Chaplain’s office has had to move and this is now based in an office opposite MG6 in Milton.

“Likewise, the rooms for supporting the Ukrainian students have moved to the Blue School Council building.

“You will appreciate that, as a consequence of this, we have far fewer meeting spaces to meet with parents during the day.

“Please be understanding as we try to find solutions to this problem. We know that additional structural investigations are required and those are booked in.

“Our key request from those who hold the funding is that contingency planning is undertaken now for temporary classrooms if those additional investigations show that there are no mitigations that are possible with the Kennion classrooms.”