New London Dock ‘eco-friendly’ secondary school is a breath of fresh air for Wapping

It's 'good to go' for Wapping's new eco-freindly secondary school opening in 2022. Picture: Kois Miah (Image: Kois Miah)

The eco-friendly Mulberry Academy London Dock opens in September 2022 as a non-selective, state-funded mixed school for pupils from 11 to 18.

It is to be in a new building still on the drawing board that deals with the effects of pollution through ‘passivhaus’ innovation, an international design standard with low energy and exceptional internal air quality. The design includes green space with sports and leisure facilities open for community use after school.

The scheme was part of the planning condition for the new London Dock development, just a hop and a skip from Tower Bridge, the Tower of London and St Katharine’s docks.

It follows a long campaign by parents in Wapping in this isolated corner of the East End who have been calling for a secondary school south of the busy A13 Commercial Road.

It is being run as a council partnership with Stepney’s Mulberry schools’ trust and the Department for Education.

Mayor John Biggs has been on a walkabout to the new school site looking ahead to its completion in little more than three years’ time.

With him was the schools trust chief executive Dr Vanessa Ogden, who said: “We want it to be a ‘beacon’ school in Wapping, an opportunity that has been missed for too long.”

The Mulberry trust was selected to run the new academy because of its connections as a ‘teaching school’ with east London employers and arts organisations, helping train teachers and education leaders.

Its aim is helping pupils get to university or take degree apprenticeships, with intellectual development and focussing on ‘global’ citizenship. Extracurricular activities will include the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme and Model UN.

The new academy is to have a local governing body of professionals and community partners when it opens.