Conservative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge, the Rt Hon Philip Hammond officially opened our new school on Friday 9th December. It was a wonderful celebration and an opportunity for us to thank the Manby Lodge Community and all those involved in the project.
There was a tour of the building for all guests highlighting the new facilities and the high quality learning environment that has been created for the children. This was followed by the Official Opening Ceremony, Mrs Creasey said:
“The completion of the new school facilities has provided an outstanding learning environment for our children enabling them to flourish and be the best they can be. This was a unique and challenging build in the fact that the new building had been built around us whilst the school continued to run as usual. The success of the build was due to the strength of the relationships between Manby Lodge Infant School, Surrey County Council, the building contractors and the architects. The ultimate aim of this project has always been to provide the best for our children. The school values of ‘Learn More, Do More, Be More’ and ‘Be the Best We Can’ are at the heart of the school’s ethos.”
Our school expansion has been part of Surrey’s countywide programme to meet a rise in demand for school places
and to ensure children continue to have the facilities they need for the best possible education. For us, this supported an increase in its published admission numbers from 60 to 90.
Linda Kemeny, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement, said:
“This extension to Manby Lodge will create an extra 30 much-needed places a year in Weybridge for the benefit of pupils in the area for decades to come and I’m delighted the new building and its first-class facilities are now fully in use.”
“We’ll continue to pull out all the stops to build the 11,000 extra school places that are needed in Surrey over the next five years but there is a £35million shortfall in the funds we need to create them at a time when our budgets are also under huge pressure from spiralling demand for adult social care. In light of the gap in our finances for school places, we want to see a fairer deal on funding for this mammoth task.”