Revamp of city’s schools nears completion as college signs up

Birley Community College is one of the last schools to be overhauled under the city’s £350m building schools for the future (BSF) Programme.

The school has now signed up with Sheffield’s local education partnership (LEP), which includes Sheffield Council and Vinci Construction UK, meaning that work on its two-year £18m makeover can now begin.

The existing school building will be demolished and sports pitches built in its place.

Meanwhile, some existing buildings will be refurbished and a new access road will also be built from Birley Lane.

Acting headteacher at Birley Community College, Sheelagh Woodcock, said: “I am delighted to have signed up to this deal. “Our school has long been in need of an overhaul.

“A brand-new school will improve the student’s learning environment enormously and I am very grateful this work is going ahead. I can’t wait to see the finished results.”

Councillor Jackie Drayton, Sheffield Council’s cabinet member for children, added: “The BSF scheme is a scheme that the council has always been fully committed to.

“So it gives me great joy to see the scheme is very much still on track and those Sheffield children are getting the schools they deserve.”

Birley Community College is the 18th school in Sheffield to be redeveloped by Vinci Construction under the BSF scheme. Work should be completed by April 2013.

Keith Shivers, regional director of Vinci Construction UK, said: “Vinci Construction has been instrumental in driving forward this highly ambitious project for Sheffield.

“Birley Community College is the latest in a long line of schools in the city which we have helped to rebuild.

“ Our local children and young people deserve a great building to study in and it makes me very proud to know that our company has been at the forefront on helping to achieve this aim.”

Meanwhile, two banners have gone up at King Edward VII school in Glossop Road to mark the completion of the first phase of BSF work there.

The grade two-listed school is being partly built and partly refurbished in three phases, with the new buildings including a sports hall and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) centre.

Headteacher Bev Jackson said: “The students were really enthusiastic about this project and came up with some excellent designs for the banners that will brighten up the outside of our school.”

Mr Shivers added: “This is a major, two-year project and we are working closely with the staff and students to provide modern facilities that will enhance those already available at the school.”

Sheffield Council leader Julie Dore commended the redevelopment at King Edward’s as “exciting” and said that it “blends the latest in modern academic facilities with the impressive, original building to provide a school that the staff and students truly deserve.”

A £55bn drive to rebuild or refurbish every secondary school in the country, BSF was introduced by the previous Labour government but scrapped by the Tories when they came into power last year.

All those schemes which had not reached “financial close” were axed – meaning that projects under way in Sheffield and Barnsley were saved, while those in neighbouring Rotherham and Doncaster had to be abandoned.

As a result, nine schools in Sheffield and 11 schools in Barnsley will get the planned improvements, while 22 schools in Doncaster and seven schools in Rotherham will miss out on refurbishments.

Only Campsmount Technology School in Doncaster, which was gutted by fire, will be rebuilt.