Express & Star

CBSO behind plans for new music school in West Bromwich

A second new school will be built in West Bromwich as part of a drive to create hundreds of places.

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The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will run the specialist music school in West Bromwich

A specialist music school will be built in the town by 2020 in addition to a new secondary at Kelvin Way, it has been confirmed.

Almost 4,000 new school places are needed in Sandwell over the next seven years, with the rapidly rising population putting an increased strain on the system.

The new site will be run as a free school and though it will specialise in music, it will also offer the normal curriculum.

It will be run by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

It is planned to open a year after the new school at Kelvin Way, which will be built on playing fields next to the M5 and will create 750 places. A sponsor will be brought on board to run the school at Kelvin Way.

The new music school needs to be approved by the Department for Education before a site can be identified. The Orchestra said it aims to make the school a ‘global centre of excellence for music education’.

Alongside the usual school classes, the school will ‘specialise in classical, instrumental and choral music’.

West Bromwich councillor said the music school would be a coup for the town.

He said: “I’m all for it. There are a lot of children with young children in Sandwell but not enough school places.

“The Birmingham Orchestra is in favour of having the school in West Bromwich and hopefully it can be agreed. Places are desperately needed.”

The need for extra school places in Sandwell was underlined this week when it was revealed just one in four parents were successful in getting their child into their preferred school.