Students given tour of Wardle High School’s New Build

Year 9 pupils were given a tour of the new school build at Wardle High School

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

Students were given a chance to visualise their future school on Thursday 14 February as three groups of Year 9 pupils were given a tour of the new school build at Wardle High School.

A new school building is currently being constructed alongside the existing one and is due to open in early December 2013. The tours were a continuation of Deep Learning Day activities from Tuesday 5 February. Due to the bad weather students were unable to tour the new build safety on the 5 February and this was rearranged to the 14 February.

Deep learning is an approach that involves teaching wider world skills and techniques to support future learning and employment. Wardle High School promotes ‘deeper’ approaches to learning to help pupils to compete in the ever changing economic world and adapt to the needs of future employers.

The site tours were led by Ian Stickler the Project Manager and Bruce McGeoghegan the Construction Manager. The pupils were given the opportunity to ask any questions they had about the new build and made use of the opportunity. The idea of allowing pupils to tour the construction work was suggested as an educational experience to allow the pupils to see firsthand what is going into making their new school.

The new school is described in three blocks; A, B and C.

Block A is all new and will house specialist areas such as Technology, Science, Music and Drama. There will also be a new hall with retractable tiered seating.

Block B is part new and part remodelled. It will be home to all the general purpose teaching spaces, the library (LRC), ICT rooms and SEN base.

Block C is sports and will see a new sports hall and fitness suite. There will also be a focus on social spaces for students with a new dining room with adjoining courtyard.

The new school will also be equipped with an outdoor theatre and almost £1 million of new ICT resources. The new build will also make use of existing resources like the swimming pool to provide the best environment for all pupils to learn.

As well as the exciting new build, Wardle High School is set to convert into an Academy. Having Academy status will allow the school to have more options with their curriculum and free up funding.

While the current buildings works are set to be complete by 19 December 2013, works will continue after this time for demolition and a Multi Use Games Area.