Local Government
Joy as new Green school takes shape
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- Category: Walsall Council
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Delighted children joined Walsall Council bosses to celebrate the start of work on an £8m school.
Pupils from Barcroft Primary took time out to see the first turf cut at the new site in Elm Street, Willenhall.
The state-of-the-art site is due to open in 2011 and will provide classrooms for more than 300 pupils and create a new airey learning environment.
Councillor Rachel Walker, Walsall Council cabinet member for education, said: "Sod cutting is the first step in getting this magnificant building in place and we can look forward to a new school building soon taking shape."
The school is being built by contractors Willmott Dixon for Walsall Council to create a new home for the merged Elm Street and Albion Road Primary schools.
The two schools merged five years ago.
Children are currently educated in the existing Albion Road buildings which borders new site.
Once the new school is built existing classrooms will be transformed into playing fields, car park and a hard court play area once the new school opens.
Councillor Adrian Andrew, Walsall Council Deputy Leader and cabinet member for regeneration, said that the scheme was another example of investing in the future.
He said: "This is great to see. Education is a key aim of ours and these magnificent plans show we are making good that pledge."
Mr Peter Hancox, chair of the school's governing body said: "The whole school community is delighted with the prospect of having a brand new school which will provide an excellent teaching and learning environment for our pupils and staff.
"The new school will also provide opportunities and facilities to develop even closer links and collaboration with the community that we serve.”
Construction company Willmott Dixon are building the school after a successful track record nationally.
The company in the past two years built for Walsall Council the new Mary Elliot School campus as well as a new teaching block at Joseph Leckie Community Technology College.
Peter Owen, managing director of Willmott Dixon Construction Midlands, said: “As a result of the strong working relationship we enjoy with the Council we are very much looking forward to creating a school that will leave a lasting and positive environmental and economic legacy for present and future generations.”
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