Friday morning, the rain and high winds held off long enough for Archbishop Peter Smith, Fr Martin Coyle SDB, Provincial, Lend Lease, together with Headteacher, Mr Simon Uttley, to put the first spade in the ground at the site of the new buildings for St John Bosco College.

The College, a coeducational secondary school and sixth form, opened just over two years ago in temporary accommodation, achieving a judgement of 'Good' by Ofsted within 18 months.

The breaking of the ground will culminate in a move to state-of-the-art buildings, planned for the autumn of 2015.

In a short speech, Fr Martin said;

"There is obviously a heritage of education on this site and the new buildings of St John Bosco College.... will allow it to build on its strengths on this site as an outstanding school, to provide the very best education for the young people of this area, long, long into the future...

...the Salesians of Don Bosco are committed to the provision of education, here in this part of London, to the point where we're also going to be building,just behind us, a new community residence for our mission. So it's a really exciting time for us."

Simon Uttley said:

"I want to mention 3 principles that have been at the heart of this project, from my point of view as a school leader and indeed the governing body. The first one was to create a safe, resourceful and superbly resourceful facility at which the community could be proud of which would continue to add value for decades to come. Second principle, again for myself and the governors was to keep at the centre, the student experience, recalling the central message through our patron St. John Bosco "It is not enough that a child is loved, a child must know that they are loved." And thirdly, we wish to keep in mind, that in autumn 2015, we're not opening a new school here in Battersea, but rather we're opening a superb new building where a thriving already existing school can come, can flourish and can do very very well. And I think that's very important that we keep the heart and the soul of the student experience at the heart of what we're doing. To be living through a time where so often young people are seen in terms of their commodification as units of economic growth, rather than individuals with a unique vocation which is the Catholic view of education and the Salesian view of education is I think extremely important."