THIS week pupils from the nearby John Locke Academy and Ryefield Primary School came together with VINCI St. Modwen, the development partners at St. Andrew’s Park, to help plant the first greenery around the brand new children’s play area within the park.

House Captains and members of the School Council from Ryefield Primary and children in the Gardening Club at the John Locke Academy planted Hebes and Luzulas around the newly constructed children’s play area adjacent to St. Andrew’s Road, within the new parkland area.

The play area and wider 40-acre park, which will be Greater London’s largest new public green space for some time, is due to be opened later this year and the area will then be accessible to the public for the first time since well before World War Two.

Staff from St. Modwen and its housebuilding unit, St. Modwen Homes; Ground Control which undertook the work;,and the landscape architects Allen Pyke Associates were on hand to assist and lend their support.

The children from both schools are looking forward to being able to play on the new climbing frames and slides and to being able to show off their newly learned gardening skills to their families.

The John Locke Academy, which opened in September 2014, is a part of the multimillion-pound regeneration project to revitalise the former RAF Uxbridge site by VINCI St. Modwen.  Pupils at the new school, located just over the road from the play area, have been able to witness the transformation of the park first-hand.

Pru Silk, Reception Teacher at John Locke Academy said: “The children in our Gardening Club were very excited to have the chance to practise their planting skills at the new play area they have watched being installed just across the road from their classrooms. We look forward to watching the plants bloom and to the park opening later this year.”

Colin Tucker, Head Teacher at Ryefield Primary School said: “The students really enjoyed being able to learn new skills and help with the planting at St. Andrew’s Park. They’re all looking forward to going home and planting the sunflower seeds they were given and being able to watch them grow.”

Ruby Cripps, student at Vyners School, was invited back to St. Andrew’s Park to photograph the younger students planting.

Last year Ruby fought off competition from 400 other GCSE art students to win St. Modwen’s 30th anniversary placemaking photography competition, with her photograph of a construction worker at St. Andrew’s Park overlaid on photographs of the former RAF buildings.

Work to regenerate the 110-acre, former RAF Uxbridge site by St. Modwen and its partner VINCI began in 2013 and the new state-of-the-art 720-pupil primary school, the John Locke Academy and more than 400 homes have already been delivered.

The development will build upon and increase the wider community and vitality of Uxbridge’s town centre. 

It will ultimately comprise of 1,340 new homes, over 200,000 sq ft of office and retail space, a hotel, theatre, museum, care home, 40-acre public park and will deliver some 1,000 jobs.