Proposal for new school building
ARCHITECTS are drawing up plans for a new school building at Mildenhall College of Technology.
Suffolk County Council is conducting a feasibility study to provide the school, which has long suffered with leaking roofs and burst pipes, with a new building.
Headteacher Susan Byles said: “The school is in need of work. Suffolk County Council has already spent £1 million to keep the school going for another three to four years.
“It’s in better condition than it has ever been in, but it’s not designed to last much longer – it will need a rebuild fairly soon.”
The school did not apply for funding through the Government’s Priority School Building Programme, aimed at schools in dire need of new buildings, as those schools granted funding have no say on the layout of their new building or the facilities it provides.
Mrs Byles said she hoped the colege’s new building would accommodate a theatre, dance studio, improved science facilities, a physiotherapy studio and IT and multimedia facilities in order to cater for the school’s specialist subjects.
Mrs Byles added that Forest Heath District Council was considering building a new leisure centre adjacent to any new building.
The school will be taking Year 7 and 8 students for the first time in September.
The increased admission has meant that the school will temporarily operate from two campuses – the current Bury Road site and the former site of Riverside Middle School, in Sheldrick Way.
Years 7 and 8 will be taught at the Sheldrick Way site until a building that can accommodate all students on one site is built.
Mrs Byles said that in the meantime the Sheldrick Way site would provide a ‘nice, nurturing halfway house’ for students who may have come from small primary schools.
Both sites are being considered for the new building.
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Weather for Bury St Edmunds
Thursday 20 June 2013
Today
Thunderstorm
Temperature: 13 C to 17 C
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