Construction begins on £45 million schools projects in Peterborough
The new 1,675-pupil Voyager School will replace the existing Walton and Bretton Woods schools at a cost of £26 million. Extensions and improvements to Jack Hunt School costing £10.7 million will accommodate an additional 175 pupils. Extensions and refurbishments to the Ken Stimpson School at Werrington costing £8.3 million will accommodate an additional 250 pupils.
The proposals are part of the city council's Secondary Schools Review, which is designed to improve educational achievement for all pupils and support moves to encourage more pupils to continue their post-16 studies and take up higher education opportunities.
Councillor Geoff Ridgway, the city council's Cabinet member for Education, said: "This is a great step forward for education in Peterborough. Reaching this stage of the project has turned months of planning into a reality."
Mohammed Mehmet, the city council's Director of Children's Services, said: "This is another key milestone in Peterborough's review of secondary education. The new Voyager School and the refurbished and enlarged schools at Ken Stimpson and Jack Hunt will make a major contribution towards the culture of achievement and ambition that we are promoting for all secondary school students in the city."
Bouygues UK has been appointed under a private finance initiative to design, build and provide facilities management services for the schools for the next 30 years. The new school buildings are expected to open in September 2007.
Hakim Hadj Hamou, production project director with Bouygues UK, said: "The development of the three secondary schools offers exciting opportunities in terms of architecture and design development. We will liaise with the respective head teachers to ensure the construction programme can be adapted to coincide with the school priorities."
"We have held several meetings with local communities aimed at explaining the project and to establish close relations for the duration of the scheme."
"Peterborough has given us a warm welcome and we are happy to become part of the community. Together we will lead this project to a successful completion."
