Wanstead High School: New Builder on Site, No End Date

Building work on the unfinished Wanstead High School education block is restarting. A new contractor took possession of the site on Wednesday 21 October.

That is eight months after the previous main contractor went into administration and left the job half done. The council announced the handover in an update published on 22 October.

The update does not name the new contractor. It gives no completion date and no cost.

What happens on site now

The council says parents and neighbours “will begin to see increased activity on site over the coming weeks”. It lists four things:

• more contractor staff on site
• site clearance works
• changes to the hoarding
• health and safety reviews and improvement works

The council calls this the start of the “site delivery phase”. It says these jobs “will help pave the way for the main construction phase”, so the main build has not started yet.

A working group, not a public meeting

The update also announces a stakeholder working group. It will include people from the school, the local community and “other key stakeholders”, and will get regular updates from council officers.

The council’s Capital Delivery Team will contact “interested individuals” to set up the first meeting. Its terms of reference, how often it meets and what it is expected to achieve have not been agreed yet.

That is not what the petition asked for. Its first demand was a public meeting with parents and the community “at the earliest possible opportunity”. When the petition went to Full Council on 24 September, the officer report said the council would find “an appropriate opportunity” for a public meeting. It gave no date. The new update does not mention a public meeting at all.

What is still not known

• Who the contractor is. The council has not named it in this update or in any statement we can find.
• When the block will be finished. No date has been given since the original contractor collapsed. In May 2025 the council said the scheme was on track for late 2025.
• What the pool and leisure centre will be. The council told Full Council in September that it was still running a “design options appraisal” for that half of the site. The 22 October update covers only the school block.
• What it will cost. The council’s Quarter 1 capital appendix gives the school project £3.585m this year and £6m next year. It gives the pool £1.288m this year and nothing after that.

How the project got here

• 17 February 2026: administrators are appointed to the main contractor, Jerram Falkus Construction Limited, according to London Gazette notice 5059662.
• 19 February 2026: the council says it has taken possession of the site and has started looking for a new contractor.
• 18 August 2026: a petition demanding the work is finished opens on the council’s site.
• 24 September 2026: Full Council debates the petition, with 2,179 signatures counted online and on paper.
• 21 October 2026: the new contractor takes possession of the site.

The online petition stood at 1,465 signatures this morning on the council’s e-petitions page. It stays open until 18 February 2027.

What it means for you

• If you live near the school, expect more vehicles and workers around the site over the next few weeks, and changes to the hoarding along it.
• If you are a parent, the council has not said when pupils will get the new block, or when the temporary classrooms go.
• If you want a say, the council says its Capital Delivery Team will contact “interested individuals” about the working group. The update does not say how to put your name forward. The council’s general contact routes are on redbridge.gov.uk.
• If you use the leisure centre, nothing in this update changes the position on the pool.

We have followed the project since the summer: the petition at 477 signatures, the start of term with no contractor and the Full Council debate. The minutes of that debate have still not been published.