A £45 million school in Greenwich Peninsula for more than 1,500 pupils is set to be finished in the summer of 2019

The school will be the new grounds for St Mary Magdalene and will take children from the age of three to 19.

It will cater up to 1,646 children and be built on ground roughly the size of three football fields and employ around 200 staff.

The construction will begin at the base of Greenwich Peninsula on the corner of Millennium Way and John Harrison Way.

Currently St Mary Magdalene CofE School consists of a federation of two schools located over four sites in Greenwich and Woolwich.

Greenwich Council planning committee approved the plans in February 2016 and earlier this week chose BAM Construction to build the new school.

The development includes sports facilities such as a full-size running track, an all-weather sports pitch, and a four court indoor sports hall.

Building work has begun under a pre-contract agreement and initial enabling works have just taken place.

Andy Mason, BAM construction director for the London region, said: “This is a complex scheme that has required a lot of careful coordination and planning.

“The St Mary Magdalene School will generate lasting benefits for local education in the borough of Greenwich.”

Planning permission for the school was met with backlash from some members of the community back when it was first proposed.

In 2015 a petition was launched by the community group Peninsula Forum urging the Mayor’s office to reject the proposals due to worries about increased traffic and not enough places at the school.