Education for the future
Education in Manchester is undergoing ambitious and exciting changes that will nurture young people and provide them with the skills they need to succeed in today's society.
A combined Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and Academies programme was launched in 2006 with a £500million capital investment to rebuild or refurbish 33 secondary schools, seven of which will be specialist academies. It is anticipated that all the building work will be completed by September 2012.
Under the BSF scheme, every young person of secondary school age will be educated in a 21st-century environment. Schools will be rebuilt, remodelled or upgraded to provide flexible, inclusive, attractive learning environments in which teachers want to teach and students want to learn.
Two of the first schools to be transformed under the BSF scheme are Cedar Mount High School and Melland High School, which have been developed into the newly formed Gorton Education Village.
Gorton Education Village opened this month and has children with special educational needs educated on the same site as their mainstream counterparts.
Facilities at the eight-acre site include a 300-seat theatre, a dance studio, a hydrotherapy pool, treatment suites and an extensive range of sports amenities. The Village also boasts a unique internal glazed two-storey street, which provides access to all the classrooms and other areas within the school.
Work on Newall Green High School, and St Paul's Catholic High School and Piper Hill High School, all in Baguley, is due to be completed later this year.
Councillor Sheila Newman, The Council's Executive Member for Children's Services, said: "BSF has allowed us to develop an inspirational vision for education in Manchester that offers real innovation and enables teaching and learning to be transformed.
"All schools will have high-quality facilities and integrated information technology to help deliver personalised learning tailored to the needs, interests and aptitudes of every child."
Ten other schools have been identified under the first wave of the BSF programme as follows:
- Southern Cross School, Chorlton Park
- Burnage Media Arts College, Burnage
- Levenshulme High School
- Grange School, Rusholme
- King David High School, Crumpsall
- St Matthew's RC High School, Charlestown
- Higher Blackley Education Village (which will incorporate Our Lady's RC High School, North Ridge High School and Meade Hill School)
- Buglawton Hall, Congleton, Cheshire.