Helena Romanes School in Dunmow has officially confirmed its relocation to a new site in Stortford Road.
Saffron Academy Trust has stated the intention to relocate the school in partnership with the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) and Essex County Council.
The planned all-through school on the Stortford Road site will allow children to join from reception and study all the way through to sixth form.
Plans include state-of-the-art buildings and sports facilities, which will be available for use by the community.
Essex County Council has served a notice to the landowner to allow the transfer of the site, and construction work has already begun with the siting of a new power substation.
This will be followed by the phased build of a primary school in the coming months, followed by the secondary school and a sixth form centre.
The Secretary of State has written to Saffron Academy Trust with an instruction to sell the existing school site land and forward the proceeds to the Department for Education, which will serve as a contribution towards the total cost of the all-through school.
According to the Department for Education's plans, the school will be opened in two phases - with the primary school ready to open in September 2025 and the secondary school in October 2026.
The primary school has been designed for 420 students, while the secondary school and sixth form will accommodate another 1,600.
Temporary classrooms have been installed on the school's current Parsonage Lane site to provide primary school provision until the relocation.
READ MORE
- Meet the boxer dedicated to helping vulnerable children across the county
- High Easter and Newport get mobile Post Office services
Catherine Davis, executive headteacher at Helena Romanes, said: "We are delighted that preliminary building work for the new school has begun.
"This project has been years in the making and now the children of Great Dunmow will finally get the state-of-the-art building they so richly deserve, with facilities that will enable us to deliver an exceptional quality of education and arts and sporting facilities that will benefit the whole local community."
The SRP carries out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects at schools and sixth forms, with a view to replacing school buildings which are ageing and in poor condition.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here