Thinking Schools Academy Trust were delighted to be part of the official ground-breaking ceremony to celebrate the start of the building work on the much-anticipated Maritime Academy in Frindsbury.
Maritime Academy opened to students in September 2022, temporarily located in Twydall, with the new purpose-built site in Frindsbury due to open in summer 2024. Maritime is helping to address the shortfall of secondary school places in Medway and will have the capacity to offer 1,150 student places to the community.
The ground-breaking ceremony was attended by a number of representatives from across the community. These included representatives from the Department for Education, Medway Councillor Martin Potter, the CEO of Thinking Schools Academy Trust, Stuart Gardner, the Director of Education for the Strood Hub, Jody Murphy, Head of School at Maritime Academy, Matt Evans, Board Members, Gerard Newman and Peter Martin, and Chair of Governors, Ashley Hall.
Once completed, the new building will boast a range of exceptional and modern facilities, delivering on the Academy’s ethos of ‘making excellence a habit’ and its mission to provide a first-class education where every young person in our community deserves to have the best opportunities at life regardless of their individual circumstances.
The Maritime Academy’s permanent site will be home to state-of-the-art learning environment including a brand-new Thinking Fitness gym, open for students during the day and members of the public in the evenings, at weekends and during school holidays. All profits generated by Thinking Fitness memberships will be recycled back into the Trust to support its mission of ‘transforming life chances’.
The construction, overseen by Bowmer + Kirkland, will deliver a carbon-neutral build. The Academy will house sustainable features such as LED lights, eco-friendly temperature control in the classrooms, electronic car charging points, bike racks, and recycling stations and will use responsibly resourced materials. The Academy’s student drive team of Engineering Officers are involved with the building’s sustainability planning and have been working on sustainability projects within their ‘Horizon’ enrichment periods, in their science lessons and via their community lunch topical discussions.
Jody Murphy, Director of Education for the Strood Hub, said:
“We have worked exceptionally hard to design an academy that supports our mission to offer a unique opportunity for students to learn in a modern setting with traditional values. Our new academy has been designed with our students and the wider environment in mind. To see work begin on this today is incredibly exciting for our staff, students and community. I cannot wait for our students and their education to benefit from such excellent facilities.”
Stuart Gardner, CEO of Thinking Schools Academy Trust, said:
“We are pleased to see groundwork begin on site as it marks an exciting moment in the Academy’s history. We are working closely with our partners from Bowmer + Kirkland, the Department for Education and Medway Council to build these new school facilities that will help not only provide much-needed school spaces in the region but ensure a high standard of learning for all.”
