Building Schools for the Future

This Government scheme aims to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over "15 waves of investment".

The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative represents the biggest single investment in school buildings for more than 50 years.

In September 2006 we were awarded £28m to rebuild Nailsea School by the end of 2009 as a BSF One School Pathfinder project.

Local residents, students, parents, governors, staff, Nailsea Town Council, local clubs, groups and societies have already been informed and consulted on what the new school will offer.

New School Pathfinder

The new Pathfinder school for Nailsea is well on course to be completed for the new school year commencing in September 2009.

The two-storey building is now in the dry with all external elevations being completed and glazing substantially completed.

Over 17,000 man-hours have already gone into the construction of this very prestigious building. The main elevations are in brick with some second story areas being clad with coloured panels.

The building has been designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible, within the budget constraints. A ‘Bio Mass’ boiler provides the heating source for the school and the lighting posts illuminating the entrance to the new school are powered by the sun and wind energy.

Phase two of the project will commence as soon the students and staff are safely housed in the new building. This is when the demolition of the original school buildings will commence, ready to install the new car park and soft play areas. Funding is being sought at present to allow for the construction of an all weather football pitch on the campus.

Main BSF Update

North Somerset Council have provided an expression of interest to become involved in the main programme for ‘Building Schools for the Future’ earlier than originally forecast.

The Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) had placed North Somerset within waves 13 – 15, which had meant that the Authority would not have commenced the programme to re-build, re-model and re-furbish the secondary school estate until 2016 and any funding would initially have been limited to just two schools.

The expression of interest has provided for three ‘projects’ to include the whole of the secondary and special-school estate in a modernisation programme. The first project will see a re-build for Wyvern and major new building works at Worle and Priory Schools, with a substantial building programme for Clevedon school: within this first project is also a replacement for one of the special schools in North Somerset.

The Authority is working hard with partner organisations to prove that it is ‘ready to deliver’ and therefore be able to access up to £80 million to enable the first of the three projects to progress. The body that administers BSF nationally (Partnerships for Schools) has recently published its expectation of what Local Authorities must have in place to prove that they are ‘Ready to Deliver’ and we believe that we will have met all of these requirements (many are already in place) by early Autumn.

For further information please contact our BSF Project Team on 01275 884 351.