North Lincolnshire school celebrates start of rebuilding work
Baysgarth School to be rebuilt through the government’s flagship £4.4 billion rebuilding programme.
Pupils at a north Lincolnshire school are holding a ceremony today (12 October 2015) to mark the start of work to create a brand new building and sports village through the government’s flagship rebuilding programme.
Baysgarth School, a secondary school in Barton-upon-Humber, is 1 of 8 schools across north and north-east Lincolnshire to be rebuilt through the £4.4 billion priority school building programme (PSBP), which is transforming some of the most run-down schools in the country.
Thanks to £13.8 million worth of construction, the school’s old buildings will be replaced with a new 2-storey facility, with an accompanying sports village. This village, featuring a new skate park and modern changing facilities, has benefited from a local authority contribution of around £670,000 towards the rebuild.
Schools Minister Lord Nash said:
Our investment in school buildings across the country is transforming the learning environment for tens of thousands of pupils and their teachers.
The start of construction at Baysgarth School is a key milestone for the priority school building programme in north and north-east Lincolnshire.
Ensuring all children have access to the best possible schools and facilities is just one part of our commitment to help all young people reach their potential regardless of their background. These buildings will provide modern, fit-for-purpose schools for pupils for many years to come.
Baysgarth School Headteacher Richard Briggs said:
There is a real sense of excitement in the school and the wider community about the new build. These fantastic new facilities will serve the Barton area for the next 40 years and I am very proud to be the headteacher who oversees the handover.
Together with the sports village which will develop on-site as part of the new build project, this scheme will put Baysgarth at the forefront of educational provision in north Lincolnshire. Without a doubt it will support us in our aim to be an ‘outstanding’ school within the next 3 years.
Jon Marston of Galliford Try said:
We are delighted to have started construction works on site after many months working with the school and the Education Funding Agency (EFA) designing and planning the project. This planning has allowed us to carry out significant enabling works over the summer holidays and the new school will now begin construction for completion in January 2017.
The staff and pupils at Baysgarth Secondary School will have exciting new buildings tailored to their needs and built to meet the standards required of a modern school.
Work on the main building of the school is due for completion by January 2017.
Thanks to the PSBP, school buildings are being rebuilt faster and cheaper than those built under the previous school building initiative - Building Schools for the Future (BSF). Under the BSF it took 3 years for construction work to begin. This was slashed to 1 year for the PSBP, with projects costing around a third less.
A total of 537 schools will benefit from construction through the 2 phases of the PSBP.
Notes to editors
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The priority school building programme was established in 2011. A total of 260 schools will have their condition needs addressed through the first phase of the programme.
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Thanks to decisions which have been taken to improve efficiency and reduce waste, significant work on those projects is already underway. In September, 22 buildings re-opened through PSBP thanks to £160 million of construction work, and the total number to have been re-opened through the first phase of PSBP is now 49.
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In May 2014, the government announced a further £2 billion for the second phase of the programme. We published a list of the 277 schools to benefit from the second phase of the PSBP on 9 February 2015.
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