The borough’s newest high school site – Abraham Guest – is set to open next year.
Though the school itself dates back to 1960, a £23million makeover is seeing it transformed into a high quality education resource for the whole community.
Cllr Susan Loudon, the council’s champion for education, says: “This is the flagship site for the Wigan Schools for the Future project. Children deserve cutting edge schools for the very best education, and this is the first of several new sites in our borough.”
As well as a new secondary school, the site will also include a primary school and a library which is open to all. And with leisure and sports facilities, plus an adult learning centre, the complex will be an asset for the local community seven days a week.
Headteacher Roy Caslake is excited that the fiftieth anniversary of the school will be marked with a major reinvestment in the building and a widening out of the services on offer. “The future is rising up before our eyes,” says Roy. “And I am delighted to welcome Lord Smith, who was involved at the start of construction, to lay the foundation stone of our new school site.”
Cllr Peter Smith, leader of the council, will join Cllr Loudon and others for the ceremony and tour of the site.
- Wigan Schools for the Future is an ambitious project built on the government’s Primary Strategy for Change and Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programmes. It will see over £300m invested in a once in a lifetime opportunity to transform primary and secondary schools across the borough. The programme is about investing funds in new buildings and resources but also about using this opportunity to transform learning for all ages.
