THIS is the first look at the stunning new buildings that could improve the learning of hundreds of Southampton school pupils.

The Daily Echo can today reveal the artist’s impressions for the planned £20m Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill – formed by the merger of Oaklands and Millbrook schools in September 2008.

But hopes of creating a state-of-the-art building at Five Acres next to The Cedar School have been thrown into turmoil by savage Government funding cuts, which also saw the £200m Building Schools for the Future programme in the city scrapped. That would have seen five secondary schools rebuilt completely or remodelled.

Developers and the City Council are keen to push forward with the new Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill building in the hope that the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat coalition will continue with the investment after a review of all the academies by the end of September. It is scheduled to open in 2012.

Meanwhile, councillors will on Tuesday consider a planning application for a new £15m building on the lower Oasis Academy Mayfield site - formerly Grove Park School – in Sholing.

A virtual tour of the proposed new Oasis Academy Mayfield

That is why it is vital that as many as people as possible support the Daily Echo’s Best Deal for our Schools campaign, launched at the start of this week to help in the fight to secure a fair share of school rebuilding cash for the Southampton region.

We will be putting pressure on every Government minister that comes to our region and seeking the opinion and advice of education experts, politicians and business leaders to see how they believe this real crisis can be turned around.

The campaign has already been backed by Southampton MPs John Denham and Alan Whitehead, all five candidates in the Labout Party leadership battle and the city council’s Cabinet member for children’s services and learning, Councillor Paul Holmes.

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Cllr Holmes said: “The continuation of the academies programme is crucial to our educational vision for the city. We are committed to moving these schools to single sites with new facilities and are pressing this point to Government.”

The plans for Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill will go on show at one of its current sites in Green Lane, Millbrook, from 3-8pm, on Tuesday.

The consultation and information exhibition is being run by developers Carillion, who have designed the new school on behalf |of Southampton City Council and the academy sponsors, Oasis Community Learning.

Residents will be able to view artist’s impressions, including a virtual fly-through tour of the plans, as well as speak to architects and share their views on the plans.

Their comments will then be submitted with Carillion’s planning application, which is expected to be submitted to the council next month.

Daily Echo: School vision: all academic now..?

THE Daily Echo’s Best Deal for Our Schools campaign aims to secure the best deal possible for our schools and their pupils in the wake of the Government throwing doubt on building plans for several schools in the Southampton area.