Thursday 25th November saw the official opening of the Colin Parker Building at King Edward VI Aston School.
The building contains a first-class dining facility which can accommodate over 150 students, a modern fitness suite, as well as comfortable changing rooms and a warm and welcoming reception area. There is also a multi-functional classroom which is being used for studies and governor meetings.
The fitness suite and PE facilities will be used in a new initiative with the school and Aston Villa Foundation, as they begin to run a free community youth club on Friday evenings. This is open to all young people in the area. In addition, Warwickshire County Cricket Club intend to use the fitness suite for their own training purposes.
The opening event was attended by staff from around the King Edward VI Foundation schools, both past and present, as well as students, friends and family of the late Colin Parker. Mr Parker's wife, Rev. Jo, and their children Henry, Eleanor and Tom, as well as Mr Parker's mother and father were also in attendance, to unveil the plaque to declare the building officially open.
During the event, students from the school carried out a number of musical performances, including the school choir performing a rendition of Something Inside (So Strong) by Labi Siffre, accompanied with sign language. Mr Parker was also posthumously awarded with the Titan Partnership Outstanding Contribution to Education Award.
Headmaster of King Edward VI Aston School, Matt Brady, who led proceedings comments: "Schools should act as a hub for local people to come together and enjoy themselves and it is apt that they should do this in the Colin Parker Building. Henry, Eleanor and Tom, I want to ensure that your dad’s legacy lives on in this building, a place where people learn, live and play, a place where our shared values of diligence, honesty, kindness and integrity thrive. The narrative behind this building is about life and helping each other grow and I know that our boys will grow with it into well-rounded young men, as Mr Parker would have wanted."
