A while ago, the decision was taken to sell the senior boarding houses as they needed a lot of work and didn’t meet the needs of modern boarding. Roddam, Pickin and Beaumaris houses were sold to developers, who plan to convert them into a mixture of student shared flats for Harper Adams students and commercial premises. The plans are now at last starting to be submitted to Telford and Wrekin Council, which you will be able to view on their website.

Some of the proceeds of this sale will be able to fund the creation of a new MUGA (Multi-Use Games Area) on the main school site behind the Sports Hall. This will help the school hugely, as we can expand netball capacity for the year 7 girls and have an extra facility to use when the sports hall is out of action for exams and events like the Dixon Cup. We also hope to use the facility for community lettings so that we can bring in some vital extra income in this time of ever-squeezed school budgets.

In preparation for the arrival of year 7 girls, we are also adding changing rooms and toilets to the swimming pool area so children will no longer have to jog around from the sports hall in their swimsuits!

A new boarding house was created at Beaumaris Hall in 2017 just behind school. Some of you may not have seen the current bright and spacious home for years 11-13, with en-suite twin accommodation with shared facilities that prepare them for university life. They have some fantastic common areas where they can relax and socialize, as well as a supper kitchen where they can prepare their own food (because three meals a day are never enough for teenage boys!) As sad as it is to say goodbye to this part of the school’s history, the boarding house is a vast improvement on the old houses, which had been likened to a “rabbit warren”, and the sale will help the improve the school in many ways.