First look at new 1,050-pupil secondary school
Perranporth Academy's set to open in 2026 - a year later than planned
The first artist’s impressions of how Cornwall’s newest secondary school will look have been released as part of a planning performance agreement submitted to Cornwall Council this week.
Perranporth Academy, as the 1,050-pupil school will be known according to the designs, is now due to open in September 2026, a year later than originally stated. It will be one of 21 free schools across the country announced by the Government and will be built on a 8.3 hectares site between Liskey Hill and Bolingey Road just 650 metres from the centre of Perranporth if and when planning permission is granted.
A planning performance agreement is a project management tool which the local planning authority and the applicant can use to agree timescales, actions and resources for handling applications.
At present pupils in the town on the north coast go to either Richard Lander or Penair in Truro or Tretherras or Treviglas schools in Newquay. Department for Education (DfE) bosses said the new school, which it was said would initially provide up to 1,350 places, will help to alleviate pressure on the four oversubscribed secondary schools that Perranporth children currently attend. It was previously said the Perranporth school would welcome its first pupils in September 2025.
A spokesman for the development said last year: “Truro and Penwith Academy Trust is working alongside the Department for Education on the development and opening of the new Perranporth School, an 11 to 16 secondary school to provide great local education opportunities in north Cornwall, anticipated to open in 2026.”
The Department for Education confirmed the change in the provisional opening date was made last spring. It said this was the result of local planning considerations for pupil places in relation to local demographics.
A DfE spokesman stated that the new school will provide 1,050 mainstream places and will be built around an ethos of enterprise, offering students an innovative science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) curriculum.
The online images show the layout of the school, its position in relation to Perranporth as well as mock-ups of classrooms, the new sports hall and other facilities. All the images can be seen on the council’s planning portal here.