Archbishop of York launches school after £12m rebuild
A school in Birkenhead, Merseyside been officially opened by the Archbishop of York John Sentamu in a celebratory ceremony to mark the handover of a £12m project.
Construction and infrastructure company Morgan Sindall has completed the work at Ridgeway High School.
It is one of 12 schools rebuilt by the company under the North West batch of the Education Funding Agency’s (EFA) Priority School Building Programme (PSBP), which aimed to provide purpose-built buildings to schools in most need of urgent repair.
Ridgeway High School was originally built in the 1970s and had been extended in the 1990s.
Morgan Sindall has transformed the school’s estate, delivering a new three-storey teaching building and a new single-storey sports hall, which will be used by the school’s pupils and the local community.
The new buildings are arranged around three terraces and set within existing playing fields, which are retained for sports and recreation use. New utilities, including an electricity substation, which supplies power to local homes and the school, have also been built. The original buildings will be demolished and replaced with new access routes and landscaping in early 2018.
Archbishop Sentamu, the Primate of England, was on a special tour of Birkenhead and attended the celebratory event to officially open the new building.
Barry Roberts, area director at Morgan Sindall, said: “The Priority Schools Building Programme has enabled the delivery of first-rate education facilities for schools across our region that were in very urgent need of repair.
“The new development at Ridgeway High School has created a pleasant, modern, purpose-built learning environment that will benefit students, teachers and the local community and we’re pleased and proud to have successfully delivered these transformational works.”
Tony Taylor, headteacher at Ridgeway High School, said: “It’s a superb facility, which was completed six weeks ahead of schedule and it offers state-of-the-art resources to students, school staff and the local community. During their time on site, the Morgan Sindall team was very approachable, open to ideas and feedback and they have made our dream building a reality.”
