Investment of more than £55 million celebrated at five Manchester schools

Manchester City Council’s school building programme has celebrated milestones at five schools this month, with a total investment of £56 million.

The new build and refurbishment work has been funded through the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme which is an unprecedented £500m capital investment in all 33 of the city's high schools, seven of which will be academies, and by the £20m investment in primary schools through the Primary Capital Programme (PCP).

Work started at Whalley Range High School this month on a £14m project to build a new teaching block incorporating a sixth form facility.

The new build block at the all girls school on Wilbraham Road amalgamates the temporary classrooms, sixth form, technology and art facilities into a single new integrated unit.

The refurbishment will include the development of transformational learning spaces and an improvement to the student entrance; it will also incorporate social spaces both internally and externally.

There will be new dining facilities including a state of the art kitchen and extended dining space. In addition, an outside café area will be created under a covered outdoor area that will also be used as a performance area.

The school is due for completion in December 2011. Pupils will move in January 2012.

Work also started on the rebuild and refurbishment of Trinity C of E High School in Hulme.

The £17m project will see the remodelling of almost half of the existing Cambridge Street school, as well as the construction of a brand new three storey teaching and administration block.

The revamp at the 1,200 place school will include a 120 seat lecture theatre, new netball and tennis courts, as well as new facilities for science, RE, maths, English, design technology, humanities, drama and music.

The new build part of the project is expected to be completed by Summer 2011 with pupils moving in September 2011 and the refurbishment by Spring 2012 with pupils moving in April 2012.

St Peter's RC High School in Gorton is currently undergoing a £3.1m range of improvements which will allow the 900-place Kirkmanshulme Lane school to extend its teaching provision, including new facilities for Special Educational Needs (SEN) pupils and spaces for extended community use.

The building work, which includes Manchester's first ever secondary school environmentally friendly timber frame block and a sedum living green roof, also includes eight new classrooms, an office, IT room, a community room, a lift to improve disabled access and refurbishment of part of the main school building.

Due to be completed in December 2010 with pupils moving in January 2011, St Peter's will be one of three Manchester high schools to have specialist resourced mainstream provision with places for up to 10 young people with a specific language impairment (SLI) and/or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). It will also have up to five additional places for pupils with a physical disability.

Building work at the new £7.4m Park View Community School in Miles Platting completed last month with pupils due to move into their new school in September.

The new site will be home to a two-form entry 420-place school and a 120-place foundation unit on a campus that already has a Sure Start Centre that opened two years ago.

The two storey building on Varley Street has an amphitheatre for outside dining and drama, an activity area with a climbing wall, as well as a terrace overlooking the canal that will provide not only a place for staff to relax, but also a resource for external teaching of up to 15 pupils.

Piper Hill High School in Wythenshawe celebrated its official opening this month. The £10m special educational needs school moved from its existing site in Northenden to a co-located site in Wythenshawe with St Paul's RC High School as part of the City Council's education inclusion strategy.

The two schools have retained their separate identities, but are linked by a covered walkway at ground level and a first floor bridge. Shared accommodation includes a learning resource centre, staff room and dining room.

Councillor Sheila Newman, Manchester City Council's Executive Member Children's Services, says: "Manchester's current programme of educational improvements represents one of the largest investments in education the city and north of England has ever seen. Our investment in new and refurbished buildings is underpinned by a very real step change in thinking to ensure real transformational learning. Parents and young people will have a wide selection of high quality educational choices, including provision for a full range of special educational needs."