Cracking time for Manchester pupils
9 October 2007
Pupils from three Manchester schools were invited to have a cracking time on Friday, October 5, at a key stage in one of the city’s biggest school developments.
Five children, from Our Lady's RC in Blackley, Meade Hill special support school in Crumpsall and North Ridge special school in Ancoats, got the chance of 'cracking the bolts' on the site of which will be a new campus incorporating all three establishments.
Wielding large spanners, they loosened the nuts on eight bolts in the concrete foundations, marking the stage between the completion of the foundations and the start of the superstructure.
The £25 million development is expected to be completed by late June next year and will have 885 pupils in three school buildings on one campus covering nearly 69,000 square metres.
There are proposals to include an all-weather sports pitch and sports hall for shared school and community use. There will also be a school and community health suite including a hydrotherapy pool, physiotherapy room, changing facilities, toilets and hygiene room.
The campus is designed to provide maximum flexibility for future changes in educational needs, providing maximum inclusivity and a state-of-the-art learning resource centre containing a library and IT facilities. Specialist facilities will include science, humanities and English.
The campus will be landscaped with extensive tree and shrub planting.
The project is part of a £500 million refurbishment of more than 30 schools in Manchester as part of central government's Building Schools for the Future programme.
The Executive Member for Children's Services, Councillor Sheila Newman, said: "This is a major educational development for north Manchester and everyone should gain from being on the same site- the pupils, staff, parents and the local community."
Graham Fenton, site project manager for Building Schools for the Future (BSF) framework contractors Laing O'Rourke, said: "Laing O'Rourke is currently working on a number of BSF projects across the city and it is really important that we use these project milestones to engage and excite the pupils, teachers and local communities that will benefit from these fantastic new educational buildings when they are complete. The construction work on this project is now underway and we are on schedule to reach our next project milestone - the traditional 'Topping Out' of the building - in Spring 2008."
Media contact:
Jane Lemon / Dave Hulme, tel 0161 234 3179 / 4610.
