Amesbury School in Hindhead unveiled its new £600,000 academic building with a shower of balloons.

Andre Curl, the outgoing chairman of governors, extended a warm welcome to those present and in particular to Dominick Spencer, headmaster of Amesbury between 1969-1989, and his wife Sue.

Mr Curl described developments at Amesbury during his eight years as chairman, before inviting the school's president, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, to welcome guest of honour Dr Nicholas Tate CBE to open the new building.

Dr Tate, headmaster of Winchester College, was particularly impressed by the attention to detail in the new building.  "It is clear that this development has been extremely well planned," he said.  "The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facility is of an exceptionally high standard."

The building was blessed by the School Chaplain, the Rev Andrew Gready, and then invited guests were led on a tour by headmaster Nigel Taylor.

Mr Taylor told The Herald: "This really is a day of celebration for all of those people past and present who have connections with Amesbury.  However, although I am delighted with this excellent new facility, it only gives us the potential to become a better school."

Mr Taylor said that the school's strength was the relationship between child and teacher.  "However, I suspect that the highlight of the day for most of the children weren't the speeches, but the hundreds of celebratory balloons that were released."

Haslemere Herald

12th July 2002