STATE-of- the-art plans to rebuild William Brookes School in Much Wenlock at a cost of £26 million have been unveiled by Shropshire County Council. Work will start in January next year and staff and pupils will occupy the new building in September 2010.
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The existing school and community facilities, located on the historic site of the original Wenlock Olympic Games, will still be available throughout the building period.
True to its namesake Dr William Penny Brookes — widely recognised as the inspiration behind the modern Olympic Games — the new school will boast excellent sporting and cultural facilities for use by the local community as well as pupils.
The chosen contractors are Kier Group plc. They submitted a design which “reflects the key elements of the Much Wenlock countryside and which complements the school’s location”, according to the county council. The Kier submission was judged to be capable of transforming teaching and learning opportunities, minimising the disruption during the building process as far as possible, meeting the key cultural, sporting and recreational aspirations of the local community and respecting the Olympian heritage of the site.
The new school building will have an all-new 25m swimming pool, sports hall, fitness suite and gymnasium, as well as grass and all weather sports and athletic facilities.
Cultural activities are not overlooked, with a replacement for the Edge Arts Centre, dance and drama studios, new music learning facilities and a new lecture theatre which will double as a small cinema. The state-of-the-art facilities will allow students to learn in a variety of different environments as well as in top quality classrooms, workshops and laboratories.
The school is organised into four learning zones, each of which will also be a base for a school house, and a school heart which contains dining and administration accommodation. The heart of the school also includes the key performance and sporting facilities and can be opened to the community without affecting the other zones.
The county council is organising a series of events in the first two weeks of September to present the winning design to key groups, starting with school staff and governors on September 1.
There will be a public exhibition in the two main towns served by the school on September 13. The Much Wenlock exhibition will be in the Priory Hall from 9.30am to 1pm and the Broseley exhibition in the Birchmeadow Centre from 1.30 pm to 5.30pm.
County councillor for Broseley Jean Jones said: “I am delighted that we have reached the stage where we have an exciting new design for our school. It is a project that has benefited from the involvement of students, teachers, parents and community and I am sure that everyone is looking forward to the completion of Shropshire’s first ‘School for the Future’.”
Penny Cooper, headteacher of William Brookes School, said “The design for the new school is imaginative and will take the school further along the path from excellent to outstanding. I am looking forward very much to seeing it take shape over the next two years.”
The project will cost approximately £26m, of which £21m will come from the Government and the balance from other grant sources, local fundraising and Shropshire County Council capital resources.
The new school will be designed to exceed the Building Research Establishment’s “very good” environmental standard, and the government’s “Low Carbon Building” standard. This means the school will use 60 per cent less energy than would be expected from an average school of its size built to 2002 Building Regulations.