Not one but two emotional assemblies allowed staff, parents and students to join former pupils, teachers and governors in bidding farewall to a school’s old site.

Newham Recorder: Pupils at Keir Hardie School take part in a performance during an assembly to mark the school relocationPupils at Keir Hardie School take part in a performance during an assembly to mark the school relocation (Image: Archant)

So many people wanted to be part of the goodbye to Keir Hardie School’s original site in Edwin Street, Canning Town that the first assembly had to be repeated as not everybody could be accommodated in the hall due to health and safety reasons.

Year six children acted as comperes and each year group performed a special song during Tuesday’s assembly ahead of the move to their new building in Robertson Road three days later.

Simon Bond, teaching assistant, said: “The assembly was held to celebrate and reminisce about all the great moments we have had in the ‘Old Keir Hardie’ but also to focus on the fantastic opportunities which are in front of us.”

Headteacher Violet Otieno encouraged everyone to look forward to the move, adding: “essentially, we are moving into an empty shell but it is we, the pupils, staff, families and local community who will give it soul.”

The school has moved as part of the regeneration in Canning Town and its new state of the art building includes a rooftop play area incorporating a running track and a school square.

Kier Hardie’s old single storey school was built during the late Forties, after the Second World War.