A SCHOOL that has stood in the heart of a community for more than 40 years is about to go through a radical transformation.

Sir Charles Lucas Arts College, which opened on the Greenstead estate in 1968, celebrated its last day on Thursday.

Despite a Government U-turn on investing £130million into a Colchester schools shake-up, the college is still set to close and reopen as an academy in September.

The school was formed from the merger of two Colchester schools, Eastward School and Sir Charles Lucas School.

It was the biggest purpose-built comprehensive school in the town and was criticised by some for looking more like a factory.

With 90 teachers, 35 administration staff and a capacity for 1,200 pupils, the large school building dominated the skyline on the emerging Greenstead estate, where many of the flats and houses there today had not yet been built.

When the school first opened, it had its own sixth form college and had 408 pupils. It now has more than 900 youngsters, aged from 11 to 18.

It was given a specialist arts college status in 1990 and became Sir Charles Lucas Arts College.

This week, teachers, staff and pupils have been busy stripping all the last reminders of the old college from walls and displays in preparation for its re-branding and transformation into the Colchester Academy.

Headteacher Jude Hanner said: “It has been a hectic time, which has been mostly in preparation for the opening of the new academy, rather than the closure of the arts college.

“But it is important we mark the closure of Sir Lucas Arts College as well as we can. The school will look different come September.

“It is quite clear the Government’s Building Schools for the Future money is not going to come through, but it may still happen over the next few years.

“A lot of the buildings we planned to build were not due to be opened for a few years yet anyway and it may end up being done in a better way.”

Mrs Hanner admitted the current building was “impractical” and said the multimillion-pound grant would have been a welcome boost to the school and the local community. She said: “It is either too hot or too cold. It is not an ideal environment for pupils or staff.

“It is on four floors, made out of glass and metal and costs a lot of money to heat in the winter and in the summer it is like an oven.

“The dining room is woefully inadequate. It is so small for the amount of pupils we have here and, on this estate, it is very important these children have somewhere to go and sit down to eat their lunch.”

Each pupil, including those leaving the school this year, received a commemorative mug on the last day.

Mrs Hanner, who has been a teacher for 28 years, is being succeeded by new headteacher Barry Hersom.

Even without a multimillion-pound cash injection, a number of renovation works will take place over the summer costing around £200,000, money left over from the school’s own budget.

There will also be new signs and logos paid for by a government start-up fund.

Each pupil will also be given the new uniform for free when they start the new term in September.

While the future of the school has been up in the air in the past few weeks and the decision on funding is still an unknown, pupils at the school have kept upbeat.

Hollie Fazakerley, 15, of Wesley Avenue, Colchester, said: “It will be a lot better and hopefully things will be different.

“There are going to be a few more opportunities for us to do extra classes and things will definitely look a lot brighter.”

Aidan Worsley, 15, of Charles Pell Road, said: “Sir Charles Lucas has been that name for many years, so it is going to be missed.

“In a way I don’t think that should be changed. But I do think, in the long run, being an academy will improve things a lot at the school.

“What we really need is a new building, new technology for learning and new equipment.”