Rebuilt school is 'better than ever' after arson

All four KS2 classrooms lost in the fire at Ash Green Primary School have been rebuilt

A primary school in which was partially destroyed in an arson attack has been rebuilt.

Staff at Ash Green Primary in Mixenden, near Halifax, said the school would "rise from the ashes" after the fire on 1 February 2022.

All four of the Key Stage Two classrooms were lost and other parts of the site suffered smoke and water damage.

Headteacher Mungo Sheppard said the new space built to replace the lost teaching areas was '"better than we've ever had".

Headteacher Mungo Sheppard after the fire which 'devastated' Ash Green Primary School

In the aftermath of the fire, every school computer had to be taken apart and cleaned, and pupils' work was lost.

"It was terrible," recalled Mr Sheppard.

"As much as the fire was catastrophic, we very luckily had an incredible fire crew who, along with the fire doors in the corridors, managed to contain the fire so it only took one section of the building away."

He said "horror and fear" went through his head as he watched the fire and wondered which parts of the school would survive, and also where the children would go the next day.

"It was right at the end of the Covid period and we'd dealt with a lot of crises," he added.

"We've had a pretty whistle-stop tour of crisis management over the last two years!"

At the time, the fire destroyed the entire KS2 building, including several classrooms and many belongings and resources

While the damaged classrooms were out of use, children were taught in rooms loaned to the school by local museum Eureka! and the Dean Clough Mills complex.

The pupils spent 29 months away from the main school site while reconstruction took place.

Mr Sheppard added: "I would never ever wish anything like that on our school or any other school ever again; but to actually be able to say today this is our building and this is where we're going to learn and play, and it's actually better than we've ever had before, is a pretty good result."

Arsonist Aaron Foster was jailed for life for starting the fire, which caused £4.5m of damage to the primary school he had attended himself, in October 2022. He had previously set fire to Mixenden Library.

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