A second round of new school buildings

In February 2015, the government confirmed the 277 schools which would receive a share of the second-round of funding from the Priority School Building Programme.

Initially launched in 2011, the programme delivery is managed centrally by the Department for Education’s Education Funding Agency (EFA), rather than by local project teams. In the first wave of the programme, 260 schools received capital funding of £2.4bn.

As of January this year, 16 schools from the first phase were open and operating, while 55 are under construction, with the remaining schools fully involved in planning and development stages.

Submitted Plans
Plantsbrook School in Sutton Coldfield have submitted their formal plans to Birmingham City Council for approval, as part of phase two of the Priority Schools Building Programme launched in July 2011.

The £20 million plans include a new three storey ‘superblock’ and a new sports hall with a relocated car park. The proposal also divulges innovative plans for a sensory garden that will benefit the schools visually impaired students, with an area for guide dogs to use, and two outdoor classrooms.

Plantsbrook School will also increase their intake from 1,220 pupils aged between 11 and 18, to 1,580 pupils, comprising of 1,200 11 to 16 year olds, 360 sixth form students and 20 additional places for the school’s Visual Impairment Unit. The school have revealed that staff numbers will increase accordingly from 155 to 180.

Phonenix Collegiate Academy in Sandwell, West Bromwich, has also submitted plans to their Council concerning the rebuild of school premises. If plans are approved, only one of the current school buildings will remain, with the rest being replaced by a single three-storey L shaped ‘superblock’. The plans would also see
a multi-purpose games area added and an extension to the school sports hall.

Headteacher Gary Hill said the plans remained in the early stages but that it is an exciting time for the school. He said: “We have been working with the Education Funding Agency and Carillion for quite a while now and we have pulled together a detailed design. Clearly we are delighted as a school to be getting what is almost a full rebuild. It is going to give us state-of-the-art facilities.”

The redevelopment will see the number of pupils at the site climb from the current 1,800 to beyond the 2,000 mark.

Commencing construction
Work on the £15 million rebuild of Highfield School in Letchworth, Herfordshire is set to begin next month, during the May half-term. The redeveloped school is expected to open in January 2017, before an additional six months of work is carried out to demolish the old buildings and turn the original school site into communal areas such as gardens, fields and a sports facilities for the students.

Plans to redevelop Highfield were initially rejected by North Herts District Council planning committee members in 2014, but to the school’s joy the decision was overturned by a planning inspectorate in January.

Elsewhere, work has already begun on Longbenton Community College in Newcastle upon Tyne. Contractors Galliford Try have commenced with the demolition of the former City Learning Centre and sports hall buildings, and has started work on the construction of the £30 million project to replace the existing buildings.

Longbenton Community College is one of four schools in North Tyneside – along with John Spence High School, Marden High and Whitehouse Primary – to be built as part of phase one of the Priority Schools Building Programme.

Cllr Ian Grayson said: “I’m very pleased that work has started at Longbenton to deliver this wonderful new school. Our young people are receiving high quality education and in September next year this will be taking place in a state-of-the-art building with facilities that are second to none.“

The new school will open its doors in September 2016 and the user-friendly layout of the new school will make it easier for students and staff to travel around the campus.

Greenfauld High School are also beginning to see the rewards of refurbishment work carried out by Galliford Try, who secured the £31 million deal from the North Lanarkshire Council. The preparatory work, which began in early January, primarily focused upon the construction of a new access road from the A73, which was completed in March.

The location of the building itself has now been levelled with considerable surplus material re-positioned to the far end of the site where the new running track and grass football pitch will be located. The last month has seen the arrival of additional portacabin facilities to accommodate the increase in workforce as the main building begins to get underway.

About to open
Students, teachers and parents at Neston High Building will be pleased following the announcement that the building of the new school building will be guaranteed to be on time.

The signed contract confirms the construction of a new purpose-built facility for the school to house up to 1,750 students including sixth form and is on track to commence in the autumn term.

The building is designed as a three storey structure with state of the art facilities for all its students including sixteen science labs, thirteen art and design technology classrooms and a drama studio, in addition to over 60 other classroom and teaching spaces. The new building will also provide comprehensive sports and fitness facilities including changing facilities, two activity studios an ICT-rich area for the library and a sixth form study area.

Head teacher Steve Dool said: “This is a very important milestone for our community. The signing of this contract guarantees that the school will be built on schedule.”

Demands for listing
Craig Whittaker, MP for Calder Valley, has called for the government to make public the listing of decaying schools that missed out on the Priority School Building Programme.

It followed two schools in his constituency, Calder High and Todmorden High, both missing out on funding under phase two if the Priority School Building Programme earlier this year – despite problems with gas leaks, sewer collapses and asbestos.

In 2009, the then Shadow Secretary of State for Schools and later former Education Secretary Michael Gove described Calder High as ‘one of the worst schools I have seen in terms of fabric’. Additionally, Todmorden High is believed to be spending £250,000 a year in repairs.

Whittaker, a Conservative candidate, said: “It should be made open, honest and transparent. They should be developing these surveys so there is a true ranking and every local authority and school knows exactly where it is on that list.”

Following schools minister David Laws refusal to publish the data, Whittaker said: “If the survey is not the only basis, in the interests of openness and transparency why will the minister not let everyone know what other things are taken into account?”

Whittaker’s exclamations indicate further disturbances for the scheme, which in February was accused of ‘abusing its power’ after it was revealed that 70 per cent of schools receiving phase two funding were in government-held constituencies.

In total, 175 of the 277 schools named are in Conservative-held constituencies and 18 are in Liberal Democrat held electorates. Only 88 schools in areas represented by Labour MPs will get funding.

When Labour’s Building School’s for the Future programme was scrapped in 2010, in total about 700
building schemes were cancelled. Of those 700 schemes, 57 per cent of the scrapped projects were in Labour constituencies, 37 per cent in Conservative held constituencies and six per cent in areas held by the Liberal Democrats.

Eight schools in Bradford also missed out on phase two of the funding. Ralph Berry, Bradford council’s executive member for education, said the refusal to publish rankings did nothing to dispel rumours of a political fix.

Berry said: “Substantial sums of money have been given out. It doesn’t look reasonable or fair on first sight. Unless we know how they came to these decisions – which criteria were used and what priority outscored which – we are never going to know how to go forward.”

A grave mistake
At the time of the announcement in February regarding which schools were successful in their apllications for funding through the Priority School Building Programme, many senior figures within the profession voiced their opinions on possibly unfair allocations of money.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “What is surprising is that anyone would be surprised that the coalition government has sought to abuse its position to give itself an advantage in the forthcoming general election.”

Additionally, National Union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower said: “All children deserve the same benefits and funding wherever they are in the country and whoever their MP is. Ending the BSF programme was a grave mistake.”

Further information
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