News & Events

LANCASHIRE’S LATEST BSF SCHOOL OPENS IN NELSON NEXT WEEK

14 April 2010

Marsden Heights Community College in Nelson, Lancashire’s latest Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project, is set to open its doors to students for the first time next week, with construction works completed four weeks ahead of programme.

 

Lancashire County Council’s private sector partner for the BSF programme, Lend Lease, is responsible for managing the development and future running of the £25.5 million school, which can accommodate up to 1,050 secondary students.

 

The four storey building occupies a new and landscaped eight hectare site catering for a wide range of sports. These include two football pitches, grass and synthetic cricket wickets, multi-use hard court games area (providing four tennis courts and two netball courts) and a synthetic all-weather games area (providing full size hockey pitch, five-a-side pitch and running track). An existing ecological habitat has been retained and supplemented with a new horticultural area.

 

Located on Edge End Lane, Nelson, the school provides 9,656 square metres of accommodation. This comprises teaching spaces, special “discovery suites” for mathematics and science, a large auditorium, drama studio, art studios, sports hub, faith hub, communication and conference suite, community café and learning support centre.

A range of new technology is available to support the learning curriculum, utilising laptops and wireless connectivity together with interactive whiteboards. All these are linked to a curriculum benefits platform that encourages students and teachers to treat the building as a learning tool in its own right.

 

The school is constructed with low energy consumption and sustainability as key criteria. The building relies on natural ventilation, has a low carbon wood chip burning biomass boiler as its primary heat source and a rainwater harvesting system collects water to flush toilets. A sophisticated building management system controls and monitors internal environments and also supports essential school services such as cashless catering, access control and CCTV.

 

“This really is a school that students, teachers, the county council and everyone on the project team can be proud of,” says Charles McLeod, head of Lend Lease’s BSF business. “It incorporates the very latest thinking in educational architecture and is designed and equipped to encourage student attainment and teacher satisfaction.”

 

Mike Tull, head teacher of Marsden Heights Community College, said: “All within our learning community - students, parents and the residents of Brierfield and Nelson - are eager to take our college into the next phase of its development in our fantastic new building which will further facilitate the delivery of innovative and creative learning fit for the 21st Century.”

 

Lancashire County Councillor Susie Charles, cabinet member for children and schools, said: “I am very much looking forward to visiting the new Marsden Heights.

“As well as leading the way in architecture and design, the school will become a real focus for the local community. I am also especially pleased to see the school has been constructed with low energy consumption and sustainability high on the agenda. I am sure the students are all very excited about moving in to their new state-of-the-art school.”

 

Marsden Heights Community College also demonstrates the integrated nature of the Lend Lease business. It is the tenth new school in East Lancashire completed by the company as part of the county’s £250 million BSF programme.

 

In 2006 Lend Lease was awarded the 14 schools in the first wave of the programme and it is now an integral part of the Local Education Partnership (LEP) that oversees the building and running of these new schools.

 

Construction of the schools is managed by Bovis Lend Lease and the remaining four will open in autumn 2010. Facilities manager Vita Lend Lease is responsible for managing and maintaining the 13 Private Finance Initiative funded schools in the first wave for a 25-year concession period, and Lend Lease ICT is currently responsible for the all the new schools’ ICT infrastructure.

 

Press enquiries:

Andrew Bond
Catalyst Lend Lease
0207 182 9397

07711 146275