Abraham Guest High School in Orrell has hit the jackpot, winning up to £20 million for a completely rebuilt, state of the art new school.
Wigan Council’s Cabinet last night picked the Orrell Road school – slightly ahead of three others - to be the first in the borough to benefit from the government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The decision will now unlock millions of pounds of government cash to rebuild the school.
Councillors faced a tough decision as they were only allowed to choose one school from a shortlist of four: Abraham Guest, the Deanery, St Mary’s in Astley and St Peter’s in Orrell. The shortlist was drawn up using the council’s ‘asset register’ which identified schools with the most urgent building problems.
Building Schools for the Future will eventually see more than £150M invested in a new range of 21st century secondary schools across the borough.
The money for Abraham Guest – known as a pathfinder project for BSF - is a down payment on the future government investment promised for secondary education across the borough, and councillors were keen to stress that the three schools that missed out would all benefit in the future.
The school was chosen because it has the highest backlog of urgent building ‘condition’ problems of any of the borough’s schools, and its restricted site means there are major difficulties with layout, parking and circulation round the school.
As a sports college it also has excellent community links, and with 1,000 pupils is seen as the right size of secondary school to benefit from BSF.
The council’s director of children and young people’s services, Ged Rowney, said there were two options for building the new school: either on part of the Lamberhead Green primary school site, half a mile from the current school in Orrell Road, or on the existing site with pupils being moved elsewhere during the rebuild.
He said further discussions would now take place about the best option. The new school is set to open in 2009.
Mr Rowney added: “We faced a very difficult decision, as all the four schools satisfy the government’s criteria, and all four put up an excellent case arguing why they should have been chosen.
“But at the end of the day we were only allowed to choose one at this time, and I believe the cabinet has made the right decision. I want to stress that the other three schools are all excellent viable schools with an assured future, and they will also eventually benefit from Building Schools for the Future.”
Cllr Brian Wilson, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “The merits of the cases for all four schools were finely balanced. The fact that the Cabinet found it so hard to decide reflects just what good cases they all made”.
“I would stress however that this is just the first step. Abraham Guest will be the pioneer for a much more extensive school rebuilding programme in a few years time. It’s a fantastic chance to renew our building stock and have high quality schools in the right places serving the needs of the community.”
Roy Caslake, headteacher at Abraham Guest, said: “Our governors, staff, parents and pupils are delighted with the news that we are to be the ‘pathfinder’ school.
“As a flagship school for Wigan local education authority it will provide superb opportunities for young people in the west side of the borough and in particular the Orrell area.
“Everyone is excited by the possibilities for the new school at the beginning of the 21st century, and by working in partnership with the council we can realise the vision in the Children and Young People’s Plan.
“Our community can look forward to the best in learning opportunities building on the successful ethos already established at Abraham Guest.”
Note to editors
Further information: Wigan Council’s press office, 01942 827164. Abraham Guest is on 01942 511987.
