Two completed and two more to go in £30m new school project

Pupils at Whitehouse Primary School, in North Shields, moved into their new premises before the summer holidays while work on a new Longbenton High School was completed over six-week break.

And construction of new buildings at Marden High School, in Cullercoats, is due to finish this month while work at John Spence Community High School, in North Shields, is expected to be completed later this year.

The four were included in a £30million Government -unded Priority Schools Building Programme.

Mayor Norma Redfearn has welcomed the work as students return to school.

She said: “In North Tyneside, we’re extremely proud of all of our schools and our young people.

“With 92 per cent of our schools now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, and the fantastic GCSE and A-Level results announced last month, we’re one of the top performing areas in the country.

“Our young people deserve the best learning opportunities, in bright and modern buildings, that will equip them for life and work in the 21st century, and I’m pleased that four of our schools are benefitting from new buildings.

“They will continue to receive high quality education, but now it will be take place in state-of-the-art buildings with facilities that are second to none.

“I hope the children and the staff will be very happy in the new buildings as they return to school this week.”

Construction of the new building at Longbenton High School was carried out by engineering specialist SES Engineering Services (SES) after they were awarded the contract to build six new schools across the north east by Galliford Try.

SES’ operations manager for the North East, Michael Dickinson said: “Eighteen months ago there were six empty sites and now the region boasts six new secondary schools, which have benefitted not only from a truly collaborative approach adopted by all project partners but also from SES’ use of innovation and commitment to value engineering, to ensure that all the buildings would meet with the EFA’s requirements set out in the Priority School Building Programme. “

Galliford Try’s operations director, Jeremy Barnett, said: “The Priority School Building Programme has been a new build project which has replaced a number of outdated buildings, transforming and enhancing some key education facilities across the north east.

“Thanks to our extensive experience of the education sector, combined with that of our sub-contractors, such as SES, we have delivered high quality and best value learning environments that support improved educational achievement.”