Wigan Council is investing in the future for the borough’s children.
The biggest national school-building programme in a generation – Wigan Schools for the Future – is now well and truly under way with a massive £257M being spent on transforming secondary education in our borough in the years to come.
But it’s not just the secondary schools that will be benefiting from new buildings and state-of-the-art learning environments because there are also plenty of exciting things happening with the borough’s primary schools.
The council is committed to investing in new primary schools over the next 15 years and some of these projects are already beginning to take shape.
In Leigh a £6.5M primary school on Windemere Road is now open and recently council leader Peter Smith joined Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool the Right Rev Tom Williams to lay the foundation stone for the new building.
The new school is the first to be built in Leigh for more than 40 years and replaces the existing Leigh Central and Sacred Heart RC primary schools.
The new building will house both schools, allowing each to keep its unique identity but with top-notch 21st century facilities.
Over in Beech Hill plans for another ‘new school for old’ are also beginning to take shape.
Beech Hill Primary School has been a focal point for the local community for the best part of a century.
Originally built in 1913 the school is now in a poor condition and just isn’t suitable for modern learning.
The council has been given the go-ahead to create a new £4.6M school on the existing site which will open in 2011.
Both new schools have been designed by the council’s design partner NPS North West Ltd and include innovative features such as solar water-heating panels, rain water harvesting and low energy lighting.
Wigan Council’s Cabinet Champion for Children and Young People, Cllr Susan Loudon, says: “These projects are fantastic news for our borough and they really are the shape of things to come.
“We are following the Wigan Schools for the Future idea, providing the very best learning environments to give our children’s educational career a flying start.”
