School Rebuilding Programme

Visit the Thurston College Plans website here

January 2026

Planning for our future - invitation to public exhibition on the proposed redevelopment of Thurston Community College

We are delighted to invite you to a public exhibition on proposals to redevelop Thurston Community College. The drop-in event will take place at the College, on Tuesday 20 January 2026, 5:00pm - 8:00pm in the Block 6 Hall (formerly known as the Sixth Form Hall/Wolsey Hall) where you can view the plans, meet members of the project team and share your feedback. 

If you are unable to attend, the exhibition display will be available on the project website: www.thurstoncollegeplans.co.uk along with a feedback form. 

The School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) proposals include the demolition of most existing school buildings and the construction of a new school building with a sports centre. Some current buildings will remain, and the school and community library building will be refurbished as part of the proposals. The Department for Education (DfE) has tasked Bowmer + Kirkland with developing a scheme that will: better accommodate students, staff and the community; enable the school to remain operational on-site during construction; target net zero carbon in operation; and provide improved facilities.

This is a monumental milestone in the history of our College, and we are confident that disruption to daily school life will be minimal whilst building works take place. Our high quality teaching and learning, enrichment and pastoral support will continue as normal throughout the project. We are excited by the educational opportunities which it will create for students as we work closely alongside the Department for Education and Bowmer + Kirkland in developing the future of our College to better serve our young people and local community.

Stonyrock have been appointed by Bowmer + Kirkland to provide community engagement support to the project team. Please contact them via info@thurstoncollegeplans.co.uk with any questions regarding the planned redevelopment and to register for updates.

Your views are important to us and the project team. Please share your feedback via the communication methods above by 28 January 2026. The project team will carefully review your feedback along with that from other consultees before submitting a planning application to the local planning authority.

We look forward to welcoming you to the exhibition.

December 2025

June 2025

• Thurston Community College is delighted to have had an additional 4 acres of space adjoining the main site made available for student use, by Suffolk County Council. 
  
  The four acres on Ixworth Road has been secured with fencing to allow students and staff to use this space safely and steps have been taken to make this accessible for our young people to use in different aspects of their learning.
  
  The College is working to establish a Forest School provision at our campus and this space will be integral to this. The area has also been visited by our Head of Science and Head of Art, both of whom have incorporated this space into outdoor learning; so you may have seen our students with quadrats undertaking Biology surveys and others with sketchbooks and cameras taking inspiration from the natural environment.

May 2025

• We are pleased to announce a recent development which has allowed our Thurston Campus to acquire 4 acres of additional space adjacent to our site on Ixworth Road. This will initially be used to support some wellbeing work for students as well as making use of this resource for curriculum subjects such as Art and Science.