New-look academy in Poole takes shape

12:00pm Friday 1st March 2013 in News By Jane Reader

Work is well under way in constructing the new school buildings at St Aldhelm’s Academy Work is well under way in constructing the new school buildings at St Aldhelm’s Academy

WORK is well underway to transform one of Poole’s most run-down schools into a new state-of-the-art learning space.

Most of St Aldhelm’s Academy has been flattened to make way for new £10 million buildings which will include the latest high-tech facilities.

Around 45 Kier staff are hard at work at the Herbert Avenue site as the project reaches the half-way point.

And excited students can see their new school taking shape as they continue with their lessons in part of the old school, formerly known as Rossmore.

Work started in July to ensure students are able to continue to study at the site and demolition work began in earnest two months later.

Now the new-build is underway with 80 per cent of the steel frame complete and foundations in place.

Facilities in the new buildings include dance and drama studios, a performance hall and specialist rooms for science, music and art.

And learning will be transformed in much of the building with multi-use learning spaces which can accommodate up to 100 children, who can then be divided into smaller groups for specialist teaching.

Robert Trickey, the Academy’s Environment and Technology Manager, said: “The interest we are getting from parents is phenomenal. When the new buildings open in September there will be higher numbers of students here.

“The current students are all very excited about it. They can see that money is being spent to provide them with good facilities.”

Kier Project Manager Steve Malone said the new buildings will be ready for occupation in September. Kier’s attention will then move to demolishing the buildings currently being used by the students and completing landscaping work.

Comments(13)

muscliffman says...
12:12pm Fri 1 Mar 13

...."one of Poole’s most run-down schools into a new state-of-the-art learning space."

Bad enough changing the names from 'school' to 'Academy', but now the Echo is calling it them a 'learning space' - oh dear!

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Scoty2hotty says...
12:28pm Fri 1 Mar 13

I would'nt bank on occupying in Sept, Kier's built Castlepoint!

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AmsterdamMan says...
12:38pm Fri 1 Mar 13

Nice new £10 million buildings will not stop this school remaining as one of the worst performing establishments in the country (Previously the actual worst) and it will probably drop back into special measures soon...

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chiefwolf2 says...
1:23pm Fri 1 Mar 13

Thought it was a clothing retailer school at first glance at the headlines !!! ....New Look !!

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RageAgainstTheMachine says...
2:37pm Fri 1 Mar 13

Every single penny of that money should have gone on re-building Winchelsea and Montecute,schools that were due to be re-built and had the funding cruelly snatched and are much more deserving.
But no good old Ashdown and c@@@@y old St Aldehms get it all instead.Ashdown was the newest built Secondry school in the borough and now looks like a grander version of a petrol station and St A has had so much money chucked at it should be gold plated by now!

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southcoastmatt says...
2:57pm Fri 1 Mar 13

AmsterdamMan wrote:
Nice new £10 million buildings will not stop this school remaining as one of the worst performing establishments in the country (Previously the actual worst) and it will probably drop back into special measures soon...
How would you go about turning this school into a better performing establishmen then?

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AmsterdamMan says...
3:55pm Fri 1 Mar 13

I didnt profess to have the answers to turning this school around, I was simply stating the facts that this troubled school has consistently been under performing and shows every sign of continuing to do so.
It might do you well to actually stick to what I wrote...as opposed to what I didnt.Going off on a tangent does not detract from what I stated.

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sea poole says...
4:30pm Fri 1 Mar 13

Rageagainst the machine -As you've included two Special Schools in this category, why not look at the thirs -Longspee Special School? It's on Canford Heath and it was designed for Primary aged children -(up to ages of 11yrs). It's currently catering for Year 9 pupils (14 year-olds) who look ridiculously out of place in such accommodation. In addition, thanks to savage funding cuts, the pupils are having to prepare for their futures in a hugely- sub-standards building. That's NO fault of the staff or governors, but a legacy of broken promises by the local authority -of jam tomorrow, but what do you expect? Longspee was never going to be a 'beacon' for the local authority.

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RageAgainstTheMachine says...
5:13pm Fri 1 Mar 13

sea poole wrote:
Rageagainst the machine -As you've included two Special Schools in this category, why not look at the thirs -Longspee Special School? It's on Canford Heath and it was designed for Primary aged children -(up to ages of 11yrs). It's currently catering for Year 9 pupils (14 year-olds) who look ridiculously out of place in such accommodation. In addition, thanks to savage funding cuts, the pupils are having to prepare for their futures in a hugely- sub-standards building. That's NO fault of the staff or governors, but a legacy of broken promises by the local authority -of jam tomorrow, but what do you expect? Longspee was never going to be a 'beacon' for the local authority.
My apologies for leaving out Longspee.Sadly Longspee is yet another good much deserving school which is overlooked,however it has a very small amount of pupils and not many people are aware it is there unless they have direct dealings with it.I personally would of split the 10m awarded to St A 3 ways so Winchelsea,Montecute and Longspee could have much needed improvements and not had earmarked funding snatched away!

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MikeGB says...
7:09pm Fri 1 Mar 13

Correct spelling is Montacute, not Montecute.

Sadly spelling is frowned up these days.

Just saying.

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boscombewizard says...
12:21am Sat 2 Mar 13

When it became an academy it lost interest in many of the young people who struggled most. Links with other services and agencies were severed unilaterally and, as a result, any integrated work to help the most vulnerable young people disappeared. The school had a heart not so long ago and it's strength was the relationship between pupils and staff. That heart was ripped out by one head and was then buried by the current regime.

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portia6 says...
1:04am Sat 2 Mar 13

Why could it not be a Comprehensive
school or be re-located?

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justsayithowitis says...
9:20am Sat 2 Mar 13

I do not understand how this can be one of Pooles most run down schools. It has had millions spent on it and it hasn't improved so when do we stop throwing our money away. Please spend our money on actually making a difference. There are many schools in Poole that would benefit from having this sort of money spent on them. Sadly this is not one of them. Changing the name almost annually will not make it a better school either

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