Pictured above: Group shot of all involved in the AWP pitch bid - Andy Metcalfe with staff and students from the school and players from Tewkesbury Town FC and Tewkesbury Colts's U12's

National building contractor Speller Metcalfe has commenced the development of a major state of the art all-weather sports facility at Tewkesbury School in Gloucestershire.

Fully supported by the Football Foundation, the £1.25 million contract, led by Martin Brennan, Contracts Manager for Speller Metcalfe, will see the construction of a fully contained, all-weather, 3G synthetic sports pitch along with a state of the art changing block, bolstering the schools sports offering for students and local soccer teams.

Funded by the Premier League, The FA, and the Government via Sport England, the Football Foundation is the nation's largest sports charity. Launched in July 2000, the Foundation celebrates its tenth anniversary this summer and has so far supported around 8,000 community sports projects worth £930m.

Andy Metcalfe, Joint Managing Director of Speller Metcalfe who attended the sod cutting ceremony at the site stated: "We are delighted to be starting work on this exciting project. Working on community projects such as this gives our employees tremendous job satisfaction and we look forward to completing the pitch and changing room for the students at the School and for the benefit teams in Tewkesbury."

When complete the new facilities will supplement the existing amenities at the school, which already include traditional turf pitches. The addition of the new synthetic pitch will mean sports such as soccer and rugby can be played all year round, in all conditions.

Head Teacher at Tewkesbury School, John Reilly went on to say: "We are very excited to see the construction about to start on the changing rooms and new all weather pitch. This exciting new facility will make a huge difference to the lives of our students, the wider community and sports teams in our Town. We are all looking forward to its completion and using the modern facilities to their full potential."

Gloucestershire County Council has already contracted Speller Metcalfe to carry out many successful developments around the county including a similar sports facility project.