Newcastle school opening heralds milestone for government’s multi-billion schools programme

Published: 2009-09-10

Issued by Newcaste City Council and Aura

As the first intake of 46 young children settle into their brand new school in Newcastle Great Park this week, the success of the programme that delivered it will be celebrated far more widely than in just the North East.

Brunton First School is the first school in the country to be delivered by a Local Education Partnership outside of the phased programmes of work developed under the government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative.

It was always the intention when the government embarked on its multi-billion BSF programme, that the public private local education partnerships created to deliver BSF schools would eventually extend their reach to deliver wider public services reflecting local needs.

Newcastle is already ahead of the game. It has now opened more BSF schools than any other part of the country through a £220 million investment programme which is delivering 16 new BSF schools across the City by 2012.

The Local Education Partnership, Aura Newcastle, was one of the first to extend its activity beyond the government programme and work with Newcastle City Council and the local community to deliver additional community services. This currently includes two non-BSF schools and a respite care centre.

Kirsty Thirlwell, Aura Newcastle’s Chief Executive said: “The opening of Brunton is a milestone for Aura Newcastle; there are very few Local education Partnerships in the country that currently operate outside of the BSF programme.  It is a feather in our cap to demonstrate that Aura can take the transformational learning from the BSF programme and translate this into delivering an outstanding school for the community.”

The recently completed, eco-friendly Brunton First School has space for 150 pupils and is located on Newcastle Great Park, a pioneering sustainable urban development just three miles from the City centre. The high-tech school comes complete with six state-of-the-art classrooms and flexible learning spaces. There are two multi-purpose halls and a studio integrating a design and food technology room, a library and a large learning resources area. In addition, the entire school benefits from wireless ICT facilities.

Head teacher Gill McKay said: “The fact that we’re the first school in the whole country to be constructed in partnership between a local authority and a local education partnership, such as Aura, outside of the BSF programme, makes our opening even more exciting.

“Building and opening a new school from scratch is a huge and very daunting task, and we’ve been lucky to have such a great partner in Aura, and the constructors from MacAlpine in particular, to help make the process run so smoothly and efficiently”.

Covering four acres, the school grounds include a football pitch and multi-purpose games area, playground and gardens. Environmental aspects bring to life the school’s sustainable philosophy and include ground source heat pumps that tap into the earth’s heating and cooling capabilities and rainwater harvesting.

Ends

For more information contact:
Aura - Kirsty Thirlwell on 0191 226 2023 or kirsty.thirlwell@aura-lc.com

Notes to Editors:

The Building Schools for the Future project in Newcastle is managed by Aura Newcastle, the Local Education Partnership. Partners in Aura are Newcastle City Council, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Sir Robert McAlpine, Robertson Capital Projects and Building Schools for the Future Investments.

Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the largest single schools capital investment programme for over 50 years. The aim is to rebuild or renew England’s state secondary schools estate during the lifetime of the programme.

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