THERE is great excitement in the Enniskillen Model Primary School community as the first phase of the school's new-build is nearing completion, with hopes that pupils will be able to move into the new building after the Easter holiday.

Winston Glass, Principal of Enniskillen Model Primary School, spoke to The Impartial Reporter this week about the great progress.

He said: "We are hoping that staff will have access very soon from the latter part of March, with the view to having everything up and running and ready for the children when they return just after the Easter holiday.

"It is hoped that the children will be moving into the new building [then]."

Mr. Glass told this newspaper that a removals firm and various other services, for example IT, are to be at the school from next week to assist with the transition from the old building to the new.

"We also next week have various deliveries scheduled in terms of new furniture and so on for the new classrooms in the new-build," he said, adding: "When all those things are in progress, staff will then have access to get in and start the lovely job of unpacking."

Mr. Glass says he is "looking forward" to moving into the new building.

"Although there are many things that are lovely about this [old] building, there are issues, in terms of heating, leaks, and a lack of classroom space, in particular.

"All of those things have been well thought about in terms of the new building, so it’ll be lovely to have those things," he said.

He explained that with the new building, they have tried to encapsulate the history of the school in terms of the link with the District Office which was part of the original Model Primary School built in 1857.

"The District Office has been incorporated very tastefully into the new design, and also the openness of the old building.

"We’ve tried to encapsulate that in the new building where there’s an open flow between the dining hall and the assembly hall, for example," he said, going on to talk about some of the other features of the new building.

"There’s an inner courtyard in the new school, which means when you come into the foyer you get this sense of space and light."

As the school goes through this big change, Mr. Glass is very grateful to the parents, children and staff, noting how they have been "fantastic the whole way along".

“Parents, for example, have had to work with a lot less car park space. Staff have had to park elsewhere.

"At the moment they [staff] have come back and they are having to work around packing and putting boxes together," he said.

He also noted how great Woodvale Construction company have been to work alongside.

"They’ve been really accommodating, and the Education Authority (EA) have been a great help as well," said Mr. Glass.

When asked what will become of the old Model School building once the transition to the new building has taken place, Mr. Glass said: "Once Phase One has been complete – when the building is functioning and everything has been taken out of the whole building, be it things that we will take with us, or things that will go to the EA or other schools, as nothing is wasted, everything is reused again – the building will then be sealed off, and that’s when Woodvale take control of it.

"Then they’ll have to do the asbestos checks and everything else they normally have to do with a building of this age, prior to beginning demolition, which will be later next term hopefully," he explained.