Hackney leaders, students and staff celebrated the official opening of a Shoreditch Park school on Friday (November 26).

City of London Academy Shoreditch Park's new permanent site on Hyde Road features a dedicated sixth form centre, state-of-the-art science laboratories, music, theatre facilities and a sports pitch on its roof.

Though the school opened at a temporary teaching space in September 2017 with one year group, it has not had a permanent building until now.

The school has added a new Year 7 cohort every year since, with the oldest students now being in their GCSE year.

Principal of the academy, Holly Arles, said: “Our official opening event marks the end of a four-year journey that required an unwavering insistence on high quality work and conduct, as well as plenty of resilience.

“While classes were being taught in temporary accommodation, we drove standards up, year on year, to the point where we are now recognised as a centre of excellence for behaviour."

The school aims to prepare gifted students for top universities, and to compete with those from independent schools in their chosen career sectors.

The school’s leadership has also said they will prioritise supporting students with their mental health, in particular, those who have been affected by the Covid pandemic.

It aims to open a new academic sixth form on site in September 2022.

Chair of the City of London Academies Trust Board, Tijs Broeke, thanked Hackney Council, the school's sponsor the City Corporation, and local community for their support.

Mr Broeke said: "Together we made this new school building a reality.”

The school is part of the council's wider Britannia project which has seen a new leisure centre built at Shoreditch Park, with new homes in development.

Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, who cut a the ribbon at the opening, said: “The new Shoreditch Park Academy represents our continuing ambition for education in Hackney, seeing over £40m of investment not just into one of the finest school buildings in the country, but even more importantly the future of our young people."