New schools opened as milestone is reached in rebuilding project

The new £26m Seven Hills Special School has now opened in the grounds of All Saints RC School in Granville Road, to replace the previous East Hill Secondary and Oakes Park schools.

Meanwhile, All Saints School itself has also been extensively revamped and pupils have moved back in, after being taught in temporary accommodation.

Both schools were rebuilt as part of Sheffield’s Building Schools for the Future scheme, which is now well into its second phase.

A Labour initiative, Building Schools for the Future was scrapped by the Tories when they came into power last year, with all those projects that had not yet reached “financial close” being axed.

School rebuilding schemes in Sheffield and Barnsley were at a suitably advanced stage to continue, while those in Doncaster and Rotherham were abandoned.

Coun Jackie Drayton, Sheffield Council’s cabinet member for children, welcomed the opening of the two schools.

She said: “Bringing the city’s special needs education together in Seven Hills School will meet the needs of so many of our city’s children.

“It is great to see this relocated to All Saints RC School, giving all the pupils at both schools wider access to more resources and facilities too.”

Building work carried out by Vinci Construction on the Granville Road site, near Sheffield city centre, included creating a brand-new building for Seven Hills School, which now provides for 120 special needs pupils.

All Saints School, which has more than 1,000 secondary aged students, was remodelled and brought up-to-date.

The redesign included the redevelopment of three teaching blocks, one of which had not been touched since it was installed nearly 50 years ago.

The school’s main hall and gym were also still the same as they had been when they were first installed in the early 1960s.

A new sports hall has now been built, together with 10 all-weather mini soccer pitches.

Existing classrooms were altered to create more “light and airy” teaching environments, while the large hall, chapel and gym have been adapted to create dance and drama areas.

Other improvements include the creation of courtyards, a hard play area, “teaching terraces”, “sensory gardens “and a “science garden”.

Keith Shivers, regional director for Vinci Construction, said: “It gives us great pleasure to have been able to meet the needs and requirements of not just one but two Sheffield schools.

“This was a huge undertaking but one I am proud Vinci was able to drive forward with and pull off successfully.”

When the Building Schools for the Future programme was introduced by Labour in 2005, Sheffield Council was chosen as one of the five “pathfinder” authorities to lead the way.

It is one of the largest schemes in the national school rebuilding project and is due to be finished by 2013, a year earlier than initially planned.

Meanwhile, council bosses in the city have also given the go-ahead to beginning a consultation on plans to amalgamate Birley Community Nursery School with Birley Community Primary School.

If the cost-cutting plans are implemented, a new nursery class would be created at Birley Community Primary.

The class would continue to operate from the current nursery school building, but management of the nursery class would come under the headteacher and governing body of the primary school.

A spokesman for Sheffield Council said: “A final decision will be based on the outcome of this consultation and is not expected to be implemented until April 2012.”