Government Condition Improvement Funding (CIF) has been agreed for Poole Grammar School to support the construction of a new sports hall to replace its life-expired 1960s gyms and facilities.  It is a 2 year project and the new sports hall will be completed by Spring 2023 based on the current programme which assumes a Summer 2021 start.

The sports hall will have facilities to support a wide range of sports and activities available for community use out of school hours.  These include basketball, volleyball, badminton, indoor football, indoor hockey, table tennis, martial arts, netball, trampolining, handball, yoga, pilates, and Zumba.  The facilities will also include a fitness suite, indoor cricket nets, and a dedicated accessible climbing wall chamber.

Headteacher Dr Amanda Smith said “We are delighted to have been successful in this application, and excited by the prospect of being able to offer state of the art sporting facilities for our students, as well as being able to welcome people from the wider community to benefit from such a high quality development. From school sports lessons, to community activities, to extracurricular enrichment opportunities, to the promotion of physical health for all, we see such opportunity for this versatile and exciting facility and we can’t wait to be able to get started!”

Chair of Governors Dr Ken Power said “This is long awaited and  extremely welcome news.  Indoor sport and fitness facilities have been below the level our students rightly expect and deserve for too long.  Sport has always played a central role in the life of Poole Grammar School and we will now be able to offer the facilities to enable the students to enjoy and develop skills in an increasingly wide range of sports.  It will be a major enhancement to the education, health and wellbeing of all the students;  helping them to gain the lifelong benefits of  activity and fitness.  After the restrictions of the pandemic this is a much needed morale boost to the entire school.”

Premises Chair and Vice Chair of Governors Neil Bichard said “Sport has always been an important element of the all-round education offered at Poole Grammar School.  It will be fantastic for the next generation of students to have the benefit of far superior facilities to those suffered by students for far too long. This will bring us into line with the schools that we compete with at all ages and across a wide spectrum of sports.”

Jonathan Stiby, Bursar said “This is wonderful news that the school community has been waiting patiently for.  We are absolutely delighted with the CIF team approval for this transformational project that will enhance the sports and activity offer for our students and the wider community.”

CIF is an annual round of bidding under which academies, sixth form colleges and voluntary aided schools can apply for funding for the upkeep and improvement of their building stock.  In the latest round, nearly 4,000 CIF applications were made and from these 1,466 projects were approved with a total value of £483M.