A £30m state of the art school has opened on the Reggie Smith memorial ground in Belle Vale, Liverpool as one of the last schools to secure funding for Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF). The new school has replaced Gateacre Secondary School and Hope Special School, which were situated only a mile from the new site.
Liverpool City Council selected Balfour Beatty Construction as one of its three Frameworks – along with Norwest Holst and AMEC – to help deliver its £175m Wave 2 BSF programme. The objective of the Liverpool BSF scheme is to provide education facilities capable of delivering a 21st century curriculum. This includes ICT networks enabling ‘anywhere anytime’ learning in addition to providing learning resources for the whole community.
The oversubscribed new school has been designed by BDP and is bold and geometric in shape. At the heart of the new premises is a giant atrium that utilises natural light. The school grounds contain a multipurpose indoor sports facility including fitness suite, outdoor hard courts for tennis and netball, rugby, cricket and athletics, and outdoor recreation for social use and learning. The main building contains a theatre/music complex, restaurant, internet cafe, a learning resource centre and learning houses. The bistro-style restaurant, The Fig Tree Cafe, will be partly ran by students and will be open to pupils and teachers before and after school until 6pm as well as to the community during public events.
An environmentally-friendly biomass boiler has been installed and the project utilised off-site fabrication from Modular Systems +. Aecom was the consultant on the contract. Works began on site in 2009 and the school is now complete.
The previous Gateacre Community Comprehensive School opened in 1957 and the main block was added in 1961. The school is a Specialist School for the Arts and Humanities, and has 1600 students including a Sixth Form of two hundred and fifty.
The school has performed at prestigious and high profile events at venues including: The Philharmonic Hall, St George’s Hall, The Playhouse, The Town Hall, The Cavern, LIPA, The Picket and The Lomax. The performing arts department has also been featured in the local press, radio and television – the school’s choir even featured in the Christmas edition of Channel Four’s ‘Hollyoaks’.
In November 1995 the school’s commitment to encouraging the professional development of all staff was recognised by an ‘Investors in People’ Award, a recognition that has since been endorsed in 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2006.
Gateacre School to mark move to new premises with rising GCSE results
A LIVERPOOL school today had 30m reasons to be happy after seeing its move into new premises coincide with rising GCSE results.
Gateacre School opened in an ultra-modern new home in September last year.
And with its GCSE results set to smash all targets today delighted headteacher Gerard Lonergan said its £30m new lease of life had paid dividends.
The school, now based on the former Reggie Smith memorial ground in Belle Vale, was one of the last city schools to secure funding under the Building Schools For The Future scheme.
Impressive features include science labs, an art studio, a 270-seat theatre, a cinema and a concert hall equipped with the latest lighting and sound systems.
It is a far cry from the school’s ageing former home half a mile away in Grange Lane, where it was based for five decades.
And today Mr Lonergan said the “wow” factor had rubbed off in the exams hall.
He said: “We hope to exceed all our targets and beat last year’s results by miles.
“The new school was definitely a factor.
“For a start it has enabled us to teach in other ways, such as utilising its open spaces to have private study and sessions for smaller groups.
“It has given everyone a lift – the kids feel so privileged to have these facilities and when we moved in the staff were grinning from ear to ear.
“The year before was hard due to the disruption – we had to keep teaching at the same time as packing boxes and all the site visits.
“In the subject areas where we have modern facilities, such as the arts and science, we expect exceptional GCSE results.”
GCSE passes nationally could go up for the 25th consecutive year today and education secretary Michael Gove was tipped to ditch the qualifications to make exams tougher and ensure that the UK keeps up with other nations.
They are set to be replaced with O-level-style qualifications for gifted pupils, with less able pupils taking simpler CSE-type exams.
But Mr Lonergan is not convinced.
He said: “The problem is schools have to make their minds up in advance on who the bright pupils are – but it is not as simple as that. Some pupils improve over time and are late developers.”
