After many months of planning, negotiation and, inevitably, some speculation, the Directors of The Education Partnership (UK) Ltd are delighted to announce that we have secured the long-term use of new premises at Esh Winning and will now work closely with the Department of Education in an attempt to finalise a moving date, hopefully before the summer of 2024.
The new building is the former Esh Winning Methodist Church. Our new school – which will house the whole school community and retain the name “IGS: Durham” – benefits from:
pleasant and extensive grounds offering excellent outdoor space
plenty of internal space including a large auditorium, secondary hall and a large kitchen which we will convert to a laboratory
proximity to excellent sports facilities and the forest at Esh
wonderful local walks and wildlife (a river runs along our boundary)
good access and parking (considerably easier than Claypath)
A major concern for many parents, of course, will be that Esh Winning is about 4 miles west of Durham and the school run, for them, will take longer. To help with this, we will use two minibuses and hope to arrange a pick-up/drop-off point east of Durham to make life easier for our several Sunderland families and those based around Houghton-le-Spring, Washington and Chester-le-Street. For those families, the journey is likely to be shorter and easier than at present, and may be significantly so. The other minibus will pick up and drop off near Durham city centre and we are in discussions with the council to find a suitable location near to our present site. Durham-based parents should therefore find that reasonably straightforward.
We really hope that you will be able to stay with us as we make this move, and will do all we can to make it as smooth and painless as possible. It is very likely, for example, that we will be able to extend the current arrangements for breakfast club and late class, making things easier for a number of parents.
There are some internal alterations required to get the building ready for use and we will be commissioning that work soon. Although the church is in very good condition, some decoration will be needed and hopefully we can arrange some working parties to handle that.
We will need minibus drivers and a part-time caretaker, and will be recruiting as necessary in due course. If any parents would wish to offer their (paid) services in this regard, please get in touch.
The Department for Education will need to approve the suitability of the building.
A social event will be arranged soon so everyone can visit and view our new school.
We are excited to be making this announcement and love the idea of a permanent, settled home for our school, with exclusive use throughout the year. It has come together at just the right time as our current landlords have told us they won’t be renewing our lease longer term as they wish to use their building for other activities. Staff will be delighted to be able to take firmer ownership of their classrooms, it will be great to have the whole school together again, with plenty of room to accommodate everyone, and to be settled for the long term in a beautiful building in such fine surroundings. We will, of course, keep you up to date with developments as they arise, and please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions.
C J Gray
Principal