Time Capsule Burying Ceremony for St. John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School New Build
Time Capsule Burying Ceremony for St. John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School New Build
Students at St. John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School buried a time capsule to honour the school’s past while celebrating the future opportunities offered by the new build.
Students selected the contents of the time capsule, choosing current photos of the Maidstone Road site and others dating back to the completion of the site on Ordnance Street, as well as mementos of the world we live in now: school uniform, a crucifix to celebrate our Catholic heritage, a copy of this week’s Medway Messenger front cover and letters from the students of today to those of tomorrow.
The new build on City Way is led by Wates and backed by the Department for Education, and made possible with the donation of the land from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark.
Expected to open by Spring 2023 at the latest, it will bring all pupils at SJF together as a single community for the first time. Parents, carers and staff (some of whom were pupils at SJF themselves in former years) are thrilled that our students will have the outstanding facilities they deserve.
Situated at the top of the hill between Chatham and Rochester, with inspiring views looking out across the River Medway, the new build will benefit from a wide range of teaching spaces, including Multi-Use Games Areas (MUGA) pitches, state-of the-art computer labs, a library, specialist sixth form facilities, a kiln room and an architecturally-designed chapel with stained glass surround. These facilities will be shared with the wider community outside of school hours.
St. John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School has a proud heritage of educating Medway’s children for almost sixty years.
While I am as excited as our students to be moving to purpose-built facilities, today’s ceremony was an important opportunity to celebrate the history of the St. John Fisher family and remember the many thousands of students educated on both school sites.”
Dympna Lennon
Headteacher
A time capsule is a fantastic way to honour the school’s history and celebrate its future.
The new school building will enable the school to come together as one and improve the learning environment for pupils.
The new school also supports our aspiration to become a Child-Friendly City. I look forward to watching the works progress.”
Cllr Josie Iles
Medway Council’s Lead Member for Children’s Services
The burying of a time capsule in the surrounds of this fantastic new development is a symbolic linking of the past glories of St John Fisher School to its future opportunities.
We are delighted that between ourselves, the leadership, the governors and the Department for Education, we have been able to pull this project together to enable the staff and pupils to have a building of which they can be proud and in which they can teach and learn to the best of their abilities.
We are grateful for the co-operation of Medway Council in making this happen.”
Dr Simon Hughes
Director of Education for the Archdiocese of Southwark
We’re delighted to have been given the chance to build the new school and be part of this school’s history.
Everything we do at Wates is guided by our purpose of working together to inspire better ways of creating the places, communities, and businesses of tomorrow and I have no doubt the students at St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School will be overjoyed by their new facilities.”
Richard Shroll
Regional Managing Director at Wates Construction
