Sydenham High’s exciting kitchen and dining expansion project will finally take place this summer, following the granting of planning permission.

This major building project – the first since the remodeling of the Sixth Form Centre in 2011 – will transform the school’s ability to cater for students and staff as well as the environment in which they eat their meals.

The project will include the following elements:-

• Replacing and reconfiguring the kitchens and installing completely new, state-of-the-art cooking and preparation equipment and facilities

• Opening up and extending the dining facilities to include a glass orangery that can also be used as a café area with wi-fi connectivity.

• Sympathetic refurbishment of the historic, paneled dining hall

• Reconfiguring the serving and payment areas to ensure quicker and easier traffic flow for students and staff

• New furniture for the catering areas

• Reviewing all menus to take account of the new cooking capacity, enabling both quality and range to be further improved

• Addition of self-service and café-style items

During the building work, a fully operational temporary kitchen will provide meals for girls and staff from the start of the Autumn term.  This will be located adjacent to the Sports Hall, one half of which will become a temporary dining hall.

The reconfigured kitchen is due to be finished by the end of October with completion of work to the dining hall and orangery following in late November/early December, barring any unforeseen delays.

We look forward to the first events that will showcase the great new catering facilities that the project will deliver.