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Willmott Dixon has signed a £25 million deal to build Oakfields Community College in Hall Drive, Acklam, as part of its £100 million Middlesbrough Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme to transform eight schools.
Oakfields Community College replaced Hall Garth Community Arts College and King's Manor School in September 2010 and the new building will be constructed for the school to open in September 2012. It will see the Willmott Dixon team behind the highly successful project to create the nearby Acklam Grange School transfer to Oakfields.
Construction work starts on site in November and Willmott Dixon is working with architects _space group on the project that will provide exciting new learning space for 1,350 pupils aged from 11 to 16.
Currently Oakfields Community College, which opened in September, will operate across the sites of the former Hall Garth Community Arts College and King's Manor School until the new facility is complete in summer 2012.
The new school building will include a performance hall and large central atrium, while outside the grounds will feature a street theatre with an area of seats in the open atrium as well as a dedicated cycle route.
The school’s specialisms in sports and performing arts are further enhanced with a multi-use games area with flood lighting.
Willmott Dixon managing director in the North Anthony Dillon says, “Our school building programme in Middlesbrough is having a huge impact on the area. It’s not just the obvious: transforming the experience that so many children will have at school and improving local neighbourhoods. It’s the boost to the local economy, with 30 per cent of subcontractor spend going to local firms and local people employed on site in various roles.”
Willmott Dixon has been working on Middlesbrough’s BSF programme since 2008, when it was first appointed preferred bidder responsible for creating modern, new education facilities that will act as a spur for wider regeneration in the borough. The programme’s objective is to ensure Middlesbrough has a new generation of high quality schools suitable for the number of students it estimates it will have in 2016.
The schools that come under the BSF programme are: Acklam Grange, Ormesby & Priory Woods, Ashdale Pru referral unit, Beverley & Prince Bishop (formerly Tollesby), Trinity Catholic College, Oakfields Community College.