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Search forNew pool part of ambitious schools project
Friday, November 21, 2008, 08:53
After it was earmarked for closure by education chiefs just two years ago, Whitgift is now on the crest of a wave pioneering a new engineering diploma, and achieving outstanding exam results.
To complement the Humberston School campus and a new 0 to 19 campus for the east side of the borough, Whitgift will be the centre of Grimsby’s western learning gateway.
The new campus will include Cambridge Park special school, Whitgift and Great Coates Primary School.
Work is due to start in 2010, a year later than Humberston.
Headteacher, Mark Rushby said: “It will be a fantastic opportunity for the local people at this side of Grimsby.
“It will be not just a centre for learning but provide integrated services to meet the needs of the whole community.”
He said the public would also have access to the new-look pool and hinted the new campus design would mirror The Trafford Centre at Manchester with a covered atrium walkway and new study blocks leading off the central area.
Mr Rushby said: “Students will enjoy the education provision that will be so good with a high quality, they will not want to go anywhere else and stop the brain drain out of North East Lincolnshire.”
He added: “Our results vindicate the council’s decision and the local community support to keep the school on this site.
“We still have a way to go. We are on a journey. It is non-stop progression.”
Deputy director of children’s services, Roger Edwardson said a new hydrotherapy pool could be included in the plans to accommodate children with special needs.
Mr Edwardson said: “Whitgift’s results in the summer were outstandingly good. The threat of closure galvanised them under Mark Rushby, who has driven them to improvement like no other.
“It proved us wrong. Mark has pulled out all the stops.”
The plans have also been backed by other education leaders in the town.
Headteacher of Great Coates primary school, Anne Kay said: “I am delighted that education in this area of the town serving the Willows and Wybers Wood will have a boost improving secondary and primary education.”
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