Woodchurch High pupils to take part in turf-cutting ceremony for their new £26m Wirral school (From Wirral Globe)

Woodchurch High pupils to take part in turf-cutting ceremony for their new £26m Wirral school

9:38am Thursday 23rd April 2009 in Search By Globe correspondent

PUPILS from Woodchurch High School will be guests of honour when they take part in a turf-cutting ceremony to launch construction work on their new school.

These are exciting times for Woodchurch High - the school featured in the BBC’s Rocket Science series on BBC2, and pupils are looking forward to seeing their new £26 million building taking shape.

The ceremony, on Friday, May 1, at the school in Carr Bridge Road, Woodchurch, will be attended by pupils whose ideas helped shape the look of the new school thanks to a Design Festival, held in 2007, which allowed pupils to have an input into the look and feel of the building.

The work is being carried out by Kier North West, the construction company behind the new Floral Pavilion in New Brighton, and the new Woodchurch High is expected to be open for the new school year in September 2010.

The cost of the project is being met through government funding.

The whole community will benefit from the state-of-the-art new building, with facilities such as a learning café, activity suite and theatre, and library with ICT and resource facilities, made available for community use.

The school’s sports hall is already a vital part of the neighbourhood, and is used for activities by the wider community out of school hours.

Cllr Phil Davies, Wirral's cabinet member for children's services and lifelong learning, said: "Woodchurch will be a flagship school that meets high ambitions and standards, and will also meet our targets of providing more community use as part of the extended schools initiative."

The formal signing of the contract recently ended a two year period of contractor selection, design and consultation, and work on the new project is now underway.

As the new school is being built on land next to the current site, there will be minimal disruption to school life while construction takes place.

Headteacher Rebekah Phillips said: "The pupils, staff and community richly deserve this new school that will continue the excellent tradition of the old school, but will facilitate 21st Century world class education.

"All pupils, staff, governors, parents are very excited about our new school and all stakeholders have been fully involved in the development of the plans.

"We're particularly excited that the new school will provide opportunities and facilities for the whole community in areas of leisure, sport, culture, and training."

Nigel Brook, Kier North West Managing Director, said: "Kier is delighted to be working with Wirral Council and Woodchurch High School on this project.

"We believe it is a fantastic design which will help the school's education needs in the coming years and really take it into the 21st century."