Manchester wins awards for building schools

National awards announced for best practice in UK design and construction of new schools saw Manchester City Council come top in two categories.

The British Council for School Environments (BCSE) Awards - made for the first time this year - attracted more than 140 entries from architects, contractors, suppliers, local authorities and schools, across 15 different categories covering key areas of the design, building and equipping of new schools.

Manchester City Council won Best Supply Chain on a School Project for work undertaken to rebuild Rolls Crescent Primary School, Hulme - a £5.1 million project that has seen the school transformed into a 480 place state of the art building fit for 21st century learning.

City Council employee Ged Mitchell who works on the Primary School Rebuilding Project within Children's Services, was also a winner and received a special commendation at last week's awards ceremony with an award for Outstanding Individual Contribution.

The award was made to recognise the dedication, time and energy invested by him in all aspects of his work as part of the Council's Schools' Development team and for helping to develop close working relationships with government departments and other external partners such as BCSE.

Ty Goddard, Director of BCSE, said: "We were delighted to receive so many entries for the awards. The quality of entries led to some rigorous debate amongst the judges, and shows that investment in schools is producing fantastic projects which we can be proud of and all learn from."

Councillor Sheila Newman, Manchester City Council's Executive Member for Children's Services, said: "We are determined to ensure that all children and young people in the city are taught in schools of the very highest quality and with first class facilities for learning and achieving.

"Thanks to the government's investment in schools we now have a programme of work under way across the city that will see every high school rebuilt or remodelled by 2012, and a new primary school investment programme.

"We are very proud of our achievements so far and this is reflected in the fact that Manchester was the only local authority to win awards at this national ceremony."

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Jane Lemon, tel: 0161 234 3179