Grimsby pupils bury time capsule to mark rebuild
Great Coates Primary School to be rebuilt through the government’s £4.4 billion rebuilding programme.
Pupils at a Grimsby primary school will bury a time capsule today (2 October) to mark the start of work to rebuild their school through the government’s flagship rebuilding programme.
Great Coates Primary School in Grimsby is one of 8 schools across North and North East Lincolnshire to be rebuilt through the £4.4 billion priority school building programme (PSBP), which is transforming some of the most run-down schools in the country.
As a result of £3.8 million worth of construction - due for completion by May 2016 - the school’s 1970s-era building will be replaced with a modern 2-storey facility, with bright new classrooms and a sports hall which will also be available for use by the wider community.
To mark the start of construction, an official ceremony is being held at the new site, with pupils burying a metal cylindrical time capsule containing examples of their work, class photos and details of who attended the ceremony.
Schools Minister Lord Nash said:
Our investment in school buildings across the country is transforming the learning environment for tens of thousands of pupils and their teachers.
The start of construction at Great Coates Primary School is a key milestone for the priority school building programme in North and North East Lincolnshire.
Ensuring all children have access to the best possible schools and facilities is just one part of our commitment to help all young people reach their potential regardless of their background. These buildings will provide modern, fit-for-purpose schools for pupils for many years to come.
Anna Coney, Headteacher of Great Coates Primary School, said:
Children and staff have enjoyed collecting items to bury with the capsule, and this ceremony will mark the start of an exciting new beginning for Great Coates Primary and the community. Work is already underway and all the initial plans are becoming a reality - it is the talking point for our children.
From this point, the new school will really start to take shape. It’s a tremendously exciting time for everybody connected with Great Coates Primary.
Jon Marston of Galliford Try said:
We are delighted to have started construction works on site, having spent many months working with the school and the EFA designing and planning the project. The school is being built by using modern construction techniques with large sections being manufactured off site. This will see the new school being constructed very quickly and will ensure that the children and staff will have a high-quality, modern education environment.
Thanks to the PSBP, school buildings are being rebuilt faster and cheaper than those built under the previous school building initiative - Building Schools for the Future (BSF). Under the BSF it took 3 years for construction work to begin. This was slashed to 1 year for the PSBP, with projects costing around a third less.
A total of 537 schools will benefit from construction through the 2 phases of the PSBP.
Notes to editors
- The priority school building programme was established in 2011. A total of 260 schools will have their condition needs addressed through the first phase of the programme.
- Thanks to decisions which have been taken to improve efficiency and reduce waste, significant work on those projects is already underway. In September, 22 buildings re-opened through PSBP thanks to £160 million of construction work, and the total number to have been re-opened through the first phase of PSBP is now 49.
- In May 2014 the government announced a further £2 billion for the second phase of the programme. We published a list of the 277 schools to benefit from the second phase of the PSBP on 9 February 2015.
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