Momentous day as Gorton school celebrates completion of major building project

A celebration and blessing marked the official handover of St Peter’s RC High School in Gorton this week - after a £3.1m project making it Manchester’s first secondary school to be built with timber.

The major project, funded through the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF), saw the building of a new 513 square metre timber frame, with a grass covered roof and also included some refurbishment to part of the existing school.

The improvements, now completed, have allowed the 900-place Kirkmanshulme Lane school to extend its teaching provision, including new facilities for Special Educational Needs (SEN) pupils.

St Peter's is now one of three Manchester high schools to have specialist, mainstream provision with places for up to 10 young people with specific language impairment (SLI) and or austistic spectrum disorder (ASD). It also has five additional places for pupils with a physical disability.

St Peter's, a specialist college for business and enterprise recently (November 09) won an outstanding Ofsted inspection and encourages an inclusive education with pupils sharing lessons and facilities where appropriate.

The innovative timber panel design was chosen for the school because of its sustainability, ease and speed of construction.

The green roof was grown in Norfolk, and then harvested and transported to Manchester on the same day to ensure freshness.

The building work also included eight new classrooms, an office, IT room, community room, lifts to improve disabled access and refurbishment of part of the main school building.

Bespoke amenities for SLI and ASD pupils include teaching areas for small group work, a room for speech and language therapy, as well as facilities for staff development and training. There is also a hygiene suite and physiotherapy room.

In addition to the physical improvements, an additional £1.4m has been invested in the schools's ICT provision. This has enabled pupils to work on the school's computer system from home and gives parents better access to information about their child's progress.

Headteacher, John McNerney, says: "The official handover marks the start of a new era for us all - the fabulous new facilities can't help but engender pride in the school. The pupils were involved throughout the project, gaining valuable work and skills experience along the way.   They  also took part in design workshops and created the mural that is displayed at the Pink Bank Lane entrance to the school."

The investment at St Peter's is part of city-wide proposals to improve and transform education and learning for pupils with SEN by providing better facilities and choices for young people, their parents and families.

Councillor Afzal Khan, Manchester City Council's Executive Member for Children's Services at Manchester City Council, says: "The BSF programme transforms learning experiences for pupils and the communities who use the facilities. It's not simply a matter of bricks and mortar - it's about making a commitment to the future of our children's education so that every student living in the city can benefit from those improvements."

The contractors on the St Peter's project were F Parkinson Ltd and the architects were Ellis Williams Architects.