Gorton Education Village gets the go-ahead

Manchester City Council, New East Manchester and Partnerships for Schools have confirmed that they have signed contracts on their first Building Schools for the Future project.

Manchester City Council, New East Manchester and Partnerships for Schools have confirmed that they have signed contracts on their first Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project.

The project will create a brand new community campus in Gorton, east Manchester.

Manchester is only the second local authority in England to have reached this stage in the national BSF programme.

The project is part of Manchester City Council's ambitious GBP450 million BSF programme which will see a total of 27 new schools and 6 Academies built or refurbished in Manchester over the next 6 years, subject to further funding agreements with the Government.

To be known as Gorton Education Village it will bring together Cedar Mount High School and Melland Special Education Needs (SEN) High School on one campus to provide a 900 place mainstream high school and a 100 place specialist support school.

The GBP25.4m building, designed by Ellis Williams Architects and constructed by Laing O'Rourke, will feature a two-storey 100 metre long internal 'street', a sports hall and community wing, a learning resource centre containing a library and ICT facilities and specialist subject zones for science, humanities and English.

There will also be a medical suite on-site offering physiotherapy and a hydrotherapy pool.

This will create an eight-acre campus.

Councillor Jeff Smith, Executive Member for Education, Manchester City Council, said: "We are determined to raise standards of attainment and improve life chances for young people in the Gorton area".

"It is fantastic that this vision for a community campus is to become a reality and that we can offer local pupils the opportunity to benefit from these fantastic new facilities".

Robert Hough, Chairman of New East Manchester said: "This state-of-the-art building will accommodate over 1,000 students from Cedar Mount High School and Melland School in a 21st century learning environment".

"The fundamental aim of this project is to offer every child in the area the chance to access a broad and balanced education whatever their ability, and through this reach their full potential".

"Our vision is to create a culture of aspiration, leading to a transformation in the level of achievement, and we are now a step closer to making this a reality".

Andrew Robertson, Deputy CEO of Partnerships for Schools, said: "We congratulate Manchester on reaching commercial close on this project, and look forward to watching the Gorton Educational Village come out of the ground".

"BSF is now making real progress across the country, and the children of Gorton will be some of the first to benefit from the new buildings and facilities that it will deliver".

The new school is due to be completed for the start of the autumn term 2008.

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