£163m boost for schools and more on the way

Leader of the Council, Councillor Alan Taylor

More than £163 million will be invested in new and modernised secondary schools in the Rochdale borough over the next six years.

That is the result of a bid by Rochdale Council for money from the Government’s 'Building Schools for the Future' programme aimed at transforming secondary education.

Even more money will be coming the area’s way soon to pay for a new Academy in Middleton and for a sixth-form college.

The Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Alan Taylor, said: “This money will bring schools that are fit for the future, equipped with the latest technology and providing the best in teaching and learning.

“They will be open longer, so that adults as well as children and young people can use them.  More money will also be invested in education for secondary pupils with special educational needs.

“The planned improvements in secondary schools follow our successful investment in education for younger children, with three new primary schools opened last year and another two primary and three special schools due to open in September.”

He promised that the reduction in the number of secondary school places that would need to be made at the same time as improving schools would be done after listening to people across the Borough.

The Council heard just before Christmas that its bid for money to invest in secondary schools had been successful but has only just learned how much it will receive.

The £163.4 million coming through 'Building Schools for the Future' is made up of £144.8 million to build and improve schools plus £18.6 million for information and communications technology equipment.

The money will be used to create, in each of the Borough’s four townships, new “learning centres” – so called because they will provide learning opportunities for more than just schools’ own pupils, but will be accessible to all the community.

The new learning centres are planned to replace St Joseph’s RC High School in Heywood (which will also become a school for both Roman Catholic and Church of England students), Hollingworth High in Milnrow and Falinge Park High in Rochdale. A new Academy, supported financially by sponsors, is planned at the Queen Elizabeth High site in Middleton.

The Council will be involved in discussions over the next month on how much Government money it will get towards the cost of the Academy. There will also be more money to come, some time later, towards the cost of a sixth-form college. 

All the changes to secondary schools will involve consultation with schools and other interested parties in the local community. Some seventy informal consultation meetings have already taken place over the last three months and the outcomes of the consultation will be reported to Rochdale Council’s Cabinet on 29 January to determine the way forward.