Full revamp planned for Co-op Academy in Heckmondwike
The school’s current three-storey building was built between 1961 and 1970
A Heckmondwike school could soon be getting a major revamp as plans are submitted to demolish and rebuild it.
Sitting at Leeds Old Road, The Co-op Academy, Smithies Moor, is the subject of the planning application. The school takes children aged three to 11 and has a capacity requirement of 236 pupils including a 26 place nursery.
The school’s current three-storey building was built between 1961 and 1970 and used by a secondary school before closing in the 1990s. The school re-opened as the Leeside Community Primary School in 1995 and maintained by the local authority.
It was then run as ‘The John Curwen Co-Operative Primary Academy’ from 2015-2019 under the management of a Foundation Trust, until it went into special measures and was taken over by the Co-Operative Academies Trust, the Design and Access Statement on behalf of the applicant explains.
Under the latest plans, this dated building will be demolished and a more modern school built on the same site. The design has been informed by the school’s purpose – to keep children safe and provide a quality education.
The supporting statement describes the proposed design of the main school building as follows: “The building is a simply expressed I-shape form that balances the robustness of traditional materials with appropriate contrast of contemporary. The design is intended to not be too consciously fashionable and to allow it to stand the test of time.”
The school will maintain two access points for pupils and one for vehicles. Areas of the school grounds and building will also be open to the community out of hours and at the weekend.
If the application gets the go-ahead, the new school will be built before demolition takes place to allow for a decant period. The new interiors would be “bright, robust and durable”, according to supporting documents.
A target date for a decision to be made on the plans by Kirklees Council has been set for November 25, 2025.