One of the UK’s oldest and most successful schools has had a state of the art ‘green’ upgrade thanks to an award-winning builder.

The King’s School, Chester, which was founded in 1541 by Henry VIII, has just had a new £1.5 million Learning Centre extension to its Junior School completed by Anwyl Construction.

The school, which caters for almost 900 girls and boys and whose former pupils include Olympic gold medal oarsman Tom James and money saving expert Martin Lewis, has now seen the Rhyl-based company start work on a second project, a £2.1 million new Infant School – Willow Lodge – on the Wrexham Road campus.

The new Junior School Learning Centre features a science laboratory, a design technology workshop, art studio, a learning support room, a new library, new reception area and an outdoor classroom. The Siberian larch timber clad building also features a green, sedum roof with a rainwater harvesting tank and an air-source heating system – the only gas supply is for the science lab Bunsen burner.

Anwyl had previously extended the School’s Sixth Form to create a Sixth Form Centre in 2012.

Site Manager Andy Adamson, 46, from Rhyl, who joined Anwyl as an apprentice joiner, said: “It’s a really lovely building and built to very high environmental standards with rainwater for the toilets and an air-source heating system.

“The project has gone very well, it was finished in 24 weeks and now we’ve moved to start construction of Willow Lodge and we’re making good progress on that.”

Simon Malone, Head of the Junior School, said: “The pupils moved in last month and we’re absolutely delighted. It’s everything we hoped for and more.”

The King’s School Estates Manager Paul Cotter said: “This is the second major project Anwyl have completed for us. They built the Sixth Form Centre and they have started work on the new Willow Lodge Infant School which will be completed next summer.

“They are very approachable and helpful and we’ve been very pleased with the work.”

Anwyl Construction Director Tom Anwyl said: “We’re very pleased to be working with such a prestigious client as The King’s School on such an important project and one that features the most modern building techniques.

“It is important for us to demonstrate that we have the skills, the experience and the high quality workforce in this area to carry out major projects like this.

“Andy is a case in point, having joined us as a teenager and we estimate that 20 per cent of our workforce began their careers in the building industry with us and so did many of the sub-contractors that we use.”