Update on ‘once in a lifetime’ school expansion in Kirklees
Joseph Norton Academy and Woodley School and College are set to be rebuilt under the plans
More details on the plans for a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ to expand two special schools in Kirklees have been released.
This week, Kirklees Council’s Children’s Scrutiny Panel heard from senior officers on the progress of the £46.6m development of the Joseph Norton Academy and Woodley School and College. Each of these schools is being rebuilt and expanded to take more students, with spades expected to be in the ground this June.
The new Joseph Norton Academy is moving from Scissett and being rebuilt at Deighton Road, Huddersfield. It will be able to accommodate 132 pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs, rather than just the 63 pupils it has at the moment.
As for Woodley School and College, this will be relocating to the site of the former Almondbury High School. Once it’s up and running in its new premises, Woodley will be able to accommodate 180 pupils, plus a further 14 at its post-16 provision in Byram Arcade.
At the meeting, Service Director, Learning and Early Support, Jo-Anne Sanders, said: “This is a huge investment for Kirklees youngsters and very much has been about part of our sufficiency duty, to enable our ambitions that wherever possible, Kirklees youngsters are able to be educated in Kirklees so that they can be close to where they live.
“And we recognised some while ago now that there was a growing need for places for youngsters with complex autism, as well as those youngsters with social, emotional and mental health challenges.
“We’ve been pleased to be able to work for quite some time now in getting to rebuild, and specifically as well, introduce some additional places for Kirklees to meet our needs.”
Individual updates on each of the projects were then given by Head of Children’s Integrated Commissioning, Stewart Horn, and Head of Education Places and Access Strategy, Martin Wilby.
Mr Horn explained that the current Joseph Norton Academy site in Scissett is “outdated”. He said: “We wanted to build a site that is not only bigger with more capacity but also a real high-quality learning environment where children can learn in a facility that we can be proud of and can give them high hopes and aspirations for the future.”
He also spoke of how the school’s design had been informed by students and staff, with outdoor learning an important theme. As a result, there will be room for farm-type provision on the site.
For Joseph Norton, the project is in the pre-contract phase, designs, costings and construction agreements being finalised. Once open, the school will cater for a wider age range and have more female students.
Mr Wilby said that Woodley College was “a bit more complicated”, partly due to the existing buildings belonging to the former Almondbury High School that are on site, awaiting demolition. The council is waiting to exit a contract to allow the demolition to go ahead, with this expected to be “imminent”.
Elsewhere, progress has been made in getting the site ready for development, with telecom masts removed from the current building and a private pre-school successfully relocated from the site. However, this project is expected to run slightly behind the construction of the new Joseph Norton Academy.
Councillor Hannah McKerchar (Labour, Denby Dale) wanted to know when the new Joseph Norton Academy would be completed. In response, Ms Sanders, said: “We are optimistic it will be around about a year, maybe slightly longer, and it will be dependent upon some things that are outside of our control.”
Ms Sanders also explained the need to get things right, given the magnitude of the investment, and added: “it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. The investment here that the council are making is huge and I think it just underlines just how important youngsters’ needs are and how best we want to be able to meet them locally.”