WORK on the £11.5 million rebuild of Blacon High School is well under way – as our exclusive photographs show.

Construction experts at Morgan Sindall have been working on the site, adjacent to the existing school on Melbourne Road, since last June.

The shell is now all but complete, and the new three-storey school will reportedly be ready for business in August.

It will accommodate 600 pupils, aged 11-16, boasting modern amenities including dining and drama facilities, a modern library service and a new sports hall.

The school will be located along Auckland Road, changing the orientation of the site away from Melbourne Road, to ease congestion around JH Godwin Primary School where Morgan Sindall is also working on a new school development.

Sue Yates, headteacher of Blacon High School, said: “We are thrilled about the new school which will allow us to secure an outstanding learning environment for the young people in this community.

“This shows the level of confidence that there is in this school to continue to deliver high class teaching and learning.”

The project is part of the Education Funding Agency’s (EFA) Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) which aims to provide purpose-built school buildings to those in most need of repair and replacement. Both JH Godwin Primary and Dee Point Primary are also set to benefit.

Blacon councillor Reggie Jones supported the proposals last year and paid tribute to the hard work of the schools’ headteachers, who form the Blacon Educational Village.

At the time, he said: “It is a tribute to those headteachers and governors who are committed to the vision for Blacon schools, that Blacon schools are achieving greater academic success.”

Cllr Jones, a Labour councillor, said Blacon High had suffered from a lack of investment and had been earmarked for funding under the previous government’s Building Schools for the Future programme – until it was scrapped by the previous Conservative-led coalition government.

Pictures by Simon Warburton / NWN Media