GALLERY: First look at Blackburn’s newest £24m ‘super school’

4:00pm Wednesday 11th July 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Jessica Cree, Education reporter

LIGHT AND AIRY Alan Chambers in the school LIGHT AND AIRY Alan Chambers in the school

THERE will be plenty of hanging around for classes at the new Blackburn Central High School come September.

The £24million school, which will see Blakewater College and Crosshill School join forces, is on track to open its doors to its 760 pupils in the new academic year.

And with a specially designed pod suspended above the main hall for small group work, pupils will be eager to make the most of the new building, in Haslingden Road.

Other exciting features include outdoor art studios, all-weather sports pitches, recording studios and workshops to give students aged 11 to 16 a taste of the world of work.

Alan Chambers, headteacher at Blakewater College, said: “We are having a phased entry in September. The staff are in for three days to familiarise themselves and then we will phase in the students.

“It is a mixture between exciting and scary. This is new to everybody, staff included.

“There is a massive amount of work gone into it, it looks like a building site at the moment, but to see how much it has come on is just absolutely amazing.

“One of my favourite bits is the amount of natural light, it is absolutely awesome. It is really important for the kids to have somewhere bright and airy to learn.”

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The new school will be slightly smaller than Blakewater College, but, with its open space and huge glass windows, Blackburn Central, one of the last projects to be built under the Building Schools for the Future programme, is among the most modern in the country.

The project was set up under the last Labour government to build and improve secondary school buildings.

Other schools built under the scheme include Shuttleworth College, in Burnley, and Pendle Community High School, both of which opened in 2008.

Comments (5)

5:46pm Wed 11 Jul 12

aggressive.onion.vendor says...

well, thats good, in't it?
indisputably good....now, lets hope that kids aren't simply indoctrinated. education seems to me 2b overwhelmingly committed to meeting the needs of the economy and less those of the individual. actually, i can't even imagine why i bothered commenting, plz, someone prove me wrong, mention something in connection with the purpose of education....tell m
e its something 2 do with the poor vulnerable child and his/her need to comprehend the world!
well, thats good, in't it? indisputably good....now, lets hope that kids aren't simply indoctrinated. education seems to me 2b overwhelmingly committed to meeting the needs of the economy and less those of the individual. actually, i can't even imagine why i bothered commenting, plz, someone prove me wrong, mention something in connection with the purpose of education....tell m e its something 2 do with the poor vulnerable child and his/her need to comprehend the world! aggressive.onion.vendor

6:58pm Wed 11 Jul 12

kateash says...

Is there space for all the school to have an assembly together.. Some in Burnley do not have this space but have super balconies as this one does for children to throw things over!! Surely it is not the building but the quality of the teaching that is most important as some of the new Burnley schools are now realising !!
Is there space for all the school to have an assembly together.. Some in Burnley do not have this space but have super balconies as this one does for children to throw things over!! Surely it is not the building but the quality of the teaching that is most important as some of the new Burnley schools are now realising !! kateash

9:43pm Wed 11 Jul 12

Fire Fly says...

Great school no doubt...however, consider the absolute traffic mayhem morning & afternoon given the problems already caused by the hospital staff entrance. This is due to a gimp from the council who decided a traffic lighted crossing right at the hospital entrance would be of benefit...no sir, considering the number of bumps since the given crossing was placed there. Madness!!!
Great school no doubt...however, consider the absolute traffic mayhem morning & afternoon given the problems already caused by the hospital staff entrance. This is due to a gimp from the council who decided a traffic lighted crossing right at the hospital entrance would be of benefit...no sir, considering the number of bumps since the given crossing was placed there. Madness!!! Fire Fly

10:12pm Wed 11 Jul 12

lancashire-lad says...

Lets hope the same mistakes have not been made at this school as were made in Bradford or the errors will cost millions of pounds to fix .
Lets hope the same mistakes have not been made at this school as were made in Bradford or the errors will cost millions of pounds to fix . lancashire-lad

11:12pm Wed 11 Jul 12

DGower says...

Whilst I accept that people may want to shout about this new School from the rooftops, was it really necessary to have this story of a half built School literally days before 2 other Schools are being closed down so that this new school can exist and grow to the size it has?

Shameful, tactless and insensitive.
Whilst I accept that people may want to shout about this new School from the rooftops, was it really necessary to have this story of a half built School literally days before 2 other Schools are being closed down so that this new school can exist and grow to the size it has? Shameful, tactless and insensitive. DGower

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