A school kick-started celebrations for its 400th anniversary by making way for a new science block today.

Students at Dame Alice Owen’s School in Potters Bar cheered as the first sod was cut for the estimated £6million project which will feature 14 laboratories and a plant room.

As part of its anniversary the school began fundraising for the science building two years ago and hopes to have it up and running by the end of the year.

The school began its history in Islington when Dame Alice Owen founded a boys’ school in 1613.
In 1886 a girls’ school was founded before both school were moved to the current site in Dugdale Hill Lane in September 1973.

Over the next 12 months Dame Alice Owen’s School will be celebrating its special anniversary with a range of activities including a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.