A new building at Wycliffe College has received national-level recognition.

The £6 million development - Wycliffe’s most ambitious building project in its 136-year history - won the ‘Boarding Extension or Refurbishment Award’ at the recent Boarding Schools’ Association awards dinner.

Called Ward’s-Ivy Grove, it brings together a boys’ House and a girls’ House into a single building at the Stonehouse school.

Some of the bricks from the original building were added to the foundation of the new development on the site of the former boys’ House.

The judges said the development “is a great example of renewal and future proofing – all within a very confined site right next to a busy A Road and the main entrance to the school”.

HRH The Duchess of Gloucester officially opened the building in March. During the visit, the Duchess met many of the residents of the new Ward’s-Ivy Grove, including Boarders and Flexi-Boarders and toured the bedrooms.

“The new House attractively achieves its aims and manages to replace a tired boys’ boarding House, integrate a girls’ boarding House from elsewhere in the school and create additional accommodation to grow flexi boarding alongside traditional full boarding,” said the judges who praised Wycliffe for tangible ‘improvement and innovation’.

The growth of Flexi-Boarding supports busy families in which both parents might have very busy jobs and allows the benefits of a Boarding education/experience to be extended to Day pupils, thereby also expanding the College’s catchment area across the whole county and in

to surrounding counties.

Head of Wycliffe College, Mr Nick Gregory, said: “This very prestigious award from the Boarding Schools’ Association focused on three areas (Design; Sustainability; Innovation) and we are absolutely thrilled that, out of 500+ Boarding Schools across the land, we scored so highly in all three categories that the Ward’s-Ivy Grove building has been recognised in this way.”

Wycliffe College is a significant local employer with more than 350 staff, educating more than 700 pupils across Prep and Senior schools, with 400+ Day pupils and almost 300 pupils who board.

The building was designed by Buttress Architects Ltd and constructed by EG Carter & Co Ltd.