Children start work at Hove police station!

The former Hove Police Station site in Holland Road is now open for business again – as junior school classrooms.

The site is now being run as a satellite campus of Hove Junior School (formerly West Hove Junior School), whose ‘parent’ site is a mile away in School Road. Three classes have started at Holland Road this September, a figure that will rise to four classes per year starting in September 2015.

Hove Junior School’s expansion onto the Holland Road site mirrors the success of West Hove Infant School’s successful expansion onto its Connaught Road site in central Hove three years ago.

Like their adjacent ‘parent’ sites in School Road, the Holland Road and Connaught Road sites count as linked schools for admissions purposes, which means children at Connaught Road get priority for places at Holland Road.

The Holland Road project has been driven by Brighton & Hove City Council in response to high demand for primary school places in central and south Hove. The remodelling of the former police station for use as classrooms was designed and implemented by the council’s property and design team.

The chair of the council’s children and young people committee, Councillor Sue Shanks, said: “Hove Juniors is an excellent school, and we’re delighted that they are running the new Holland Road site. It means both a high quality education and continuity for the children coming from Connaught Road.

Headteacher Janis Taylor said: “Our new Holland Road site is looking fantastic. The conversion job from the old police station has been absolutely first class – once you walk through the door you really wouldn’t recognise it!

“We’re really excited to have finally welcomed the children in, and the feedback we’ve had from our parents has been incredibly positive.”