Children’s services director goes back to school
Marion Davis, Warwickshire County Council’s Strategic Director for Children, Young People and Families, toured the flagship North Leamington Community School and Arts College yesterday (Wednesday) to see first hand the new buildings ahead of completion.
Workmen are putting the finishing touches to the new £30 million ‘school for the 21st century’ which will be the new standard-bearer for Warwickshire schools and the most eco-friendly school ever built in the county.
The school will accommodate 1,500 11-18 year olds and is located at the Sandy Lane end of the current main school site.
Ms Davis, who is also Vice President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), was shown around by pupils Ben Wesson and Thato Malebye, headteacher David Hazeldine and Simon Butler from builders Miller Construction.
She said: “This is an absolutely fantastic building, a great learning space which will be an inspiration to pupils, raising their aspirations as they move up through the school.
“Students, staff and parents cannot fail to be impressed with the many ‘out of this world’ facilities on offer which I am sure will provide many opportunities to for the school to build on its strengths and develop new ones. Add to this the environmentally friendly features, sensitive landscaping and community feel of the place and it just gets even better.”
Forty year 9 pupils have been trained as school ambassadors and have recently been giving pupils, parents and others visiting the site guided tours in the past week.
The entire school community has been involved along every step of the way with the new build. Pupils have shared their ideas, helped to design the new school logo and taken part in decision making about various aspects of the new school.
Warwickshire County Council has worked closely in partnership with the school to create the building, which has three faculty blocks, a sports centre and a main building ‘hub’.
Features include a 400-seat theatre, large sports hall, full-size all-weather surface, an adult learning/sixth-form centre and the four separate specialist faculty buildings for Maths and Science, Languages and Humanities and Art, and Design and Technology and Engineering.
The new school facilities will provide extended services access up to 10pm for the local community and bookings for sports provision and theatre are already nearly full for the next academic year.
The site has been designed as a spacious campus incorporating environmentally-friendly features such as natural ventilation and green roofs, which are covered with alpine plants to aid drainage and encourage wildlife biodiversity.
Miller Construction (one of Warwickshire County Council’s Framework Contractors) started work on the site in September 2007. It was designed locally by Warwick-based Robotham Architecture.