Two new super schools will be created and a dozen refurbished or rebuilt in a £300 million education revolution for Wolverhampton which won Government backing today.Thousands of pupils will be affected by the plans, which us being hailed as the biggest shake-up of secondary schooling that the city has seen for decades.
The Government’s blessing means work on the first phase – building an academy in Bilston on the site of the existing Parkfields Bilston High – could start in 2010.
Richard Carr, chief executive of the council, said today: “Gaining approval from government ministers is fantastic. It is another major step forward in a programme which is one of the most significant developments in our city’s education for many decades.”
Heath Park Business and Enterprise College in Wednesfield will be rebuilt on a site nearby; Highfields School will be rebuilt on the same site in Penn; and Tettenhall Wood Special School will move to the site of King’s School in Regis Road, Tettenhall.
Wednesfield High, which runs from bases in Lichfield Road and Lakefield Road, will be merged into one. Penn Fields Special School is set to close its building in Birches Barn Road and move to Smestow School in Castlecroft. St Peter’s Collegiate School, St Edmund’s Catholic School and Wolverhampton Girls High are also set to have millions of pounds ploughed into providing them with new classrooms and facilities.
Learning centres will be built at Compton Park and in Parkfields.
A second academy would be built in the north of the city to replace Pendeford and Northicote schools.
Ministers say academies “break the link between poverty and achievement”.
City education chiefs have now submitted more detailed plans under the Building Schools for the Future programme which they hope will also win approval from Whitehall before work can begin.
3 Comments
Would it also be a fantastic idea to include a language centre in the building of new schools? So that when immigrants coming to this country place thier children in education, the child can be taught English before they actually go into education, this way the child coming to the school will be able to understand what is being taught to them and the children already there dont get less education waiting for the none english speaking children to catch up… Just a thought…
Helena, that used to happen in the 80s but it was decided it was “excluding” children - even if it was for their own good, it was considered non-PC! and there wasn’t so many different language immigrants as there are now!
Oh Katy I didnt know that! But obviously, these days, anything that is suggested for the greater good of this country is usually picked to peices by the ‘do-gooder’ brigade… So…We’re excluding children by teaching them English eh? The do-gooders dont worry about your kids education suffering while waiting for the none english speakers to catch up then! Well… Perhaps they realised we’re not gonna be speaking english for much longer in England so deemed it a waste of time… PMSL all day long!