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.