By the end of last week the team had moved around 9000 cubic metres of earth, leaving around 13000 more to shift. With the Year 9s away on a battlefield tour in France, we rather aptly began this week with a pretty good attempt at recreating the muddy conditions of a WWI trench here at Kingham. The only resultant loss however, was that of one of our contractors boots, which got stuck in the mud and came off when they pulled him out!

 

 

The weather has taken its toll on the road down to Plymouth. Due to the rain and the weight of the vehicles transporting it, the top surface has badly eroded and so the road will likely now be out of action until at least Easter. 

The shape of the excavation is now pretty much the shape of the building, which just the cut away for the bridge to the pitches to be dug out. Most of the remaining digging work is part of the ‘reduced dig’, which will take the level down to the correct level required to lay the foundations. It is great to see that we have finally reached the yellow post markers, outlining for so many weeks, the outer extent of the works required.    

  

The term ended on a slightly ‘damp’ note, when a digger hit a water pipe on the site, leaving the Year 10 parents evening a slightly ‘drier’ than intended event and the site as a whole without water for a couple of hours. There was plenty of spare water however further down the hill, forming a big puddle! Luckily, our fantastic maintenance team sprang into action and had it patched up quickly.  The repair is required until we divert the water pipes permanently during the November Exeat. 

Work will continue over the half term and we hope you will see progress when you return.

Cat Thompson and Nanci Austin