6:40pm Tuesday 13th July 2010
IT has been hailed as the future of secondary education for hundreds of children in a Southampton community.
But £20m plans to create a new state-of-the-art academy for Lord’s Hill have been thrown in to turmoil amid savage Government funding cuts.
Now Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead has thrown his weight behind a Daily Echo campaign to secure the Best Deal for Our Schools.
We want to make sure our learning establishments receive the funding they deserve when and if cash is made available by the Government.
It comes after the new Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition scrapped plans to plough £200m into rebuilding several schools in the Southampton area.
Separate £35m plans to overhaul Oasis Academies Lord’s Hill and Mayfield were also thrown in to jeopardy with Tory Schools Secretary Michael Gove pledging only to look at the projects on a “case by case basis”.
The funding cuts were instantly branded a “betrayal” of children amid fears it could damage the education system in the city for decades to come.
Dr Whitehead says it is now “vital” the Lord’s Hill scheme is completed claiming the current temporary situation is “not satisfactory”.
The school has major ambitions to relocate to a new site, possibly on playing grounds at Five Acres, next to The Cedar School, by September 2012.
“It is clear that the new unified building for Oasis Lord’s Hill is absolutely vital – not just for the school itself, but for the community in Southampton that it serves.
“It clearly has to be one of the priorities. I will always fight for the schools that have been robbed of their plans. Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill is one where the consequences of (any cut backs) would be particularly difficult to contemplate.
“At the moment the school is on two sites more than a mile away from each other. The whole development is based on the idea that it should have one site unifying the new school.
“If it continues on two sites it will be detrimental to the progress we would expect the school to make.
“This can only be a temporary arrangement as it is potentially disruptive and requires an enormous amount of organisation to resolve.
“It means that in terms of developing the school to its full potential, you are running up hill all the time.”
The school opened its doors for the first time in 2008 after Oaklands and Millbrook schools were merged as part of a review of secondary education in the city.
As previously reported, staff and students, who have been using both sites, are set to merge onto one site two years early amid falling pupil numbers.
From September, 750 pupils will be taught at the former Oaklands School site in Fairlisle Road.
At the time, Principal Ian Golding said there were currently fewer children of secondary school age – a factor which had been predicted before the academy opened.
Last year, pupils at the school achieved a 26 per cent pass rate for five A* to C grades including English and maths.
That is 23 per cent below the national average, but school bosses and the city’s education chiefs believe that new multimillion pound facilities will give teachers, pupils and their parents the impetus of a fresh start to push for greater success – and improved results.
They had hoped that the new future was just round the corner with construction work starting in January and be ready to use by September 2012.
That may now be in jeopardy as the Government looks to slash expenditure to tackle the country’s huge debt.
The only promise is that funding for Academy redevelopments will be open “for discussion”.
Academy bosses are so concerned about the situation that they preferred not to discuss the impact of the Government’s spending cutbacks.
But last week, Southampton City Council and Oasis Community Learning – the Christian charity which has run the city’s two academies since they opened in 2008 – said they wanted urgent contact with the Government to discuss the future of the schemes.
The council’s Cabinet member for children’s services and learning remains confident the scheme will get the go-ahead – and is ready to fight the city’s corner.
Paul Holmes said: “We are ready to fight their case. These projects are extremely far advanced with plans for Oasis Academy Mayfield due to be considered by Planning within days and design work for Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill almost complete.
“I am confident that we can still deliver these schools and will be pursuing this with the Government as a matter of urgency.”
Labour Party leadership hopefuls Ed and David Miliband, Ed Balls, Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham have all backed our campaign to ensure South-ampton gets its fair share of any cash made available for school building projects. Five schools were to be completely rebuilt or remodelled in a first wave of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme.
Bitterne Park School, Chamberlayne College for the Arts, St George Catholic College, the Sholing Technology College and Upper Shirley High School were all counting on funds.
Cantell Maths and Computing College, Redbridge Community School and Woodlands School would have received new IT facilities.
And two more secondaries as well as four special schools could have been rebuilt in a second wave of funding.
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