New Leeds Schools

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Thu 10 Sep, 2009 5:36 pm

About 3 years ago I read about a scheme to demolish/amalgamate & rebuild a large number of Leeds secondary schools all on the same timescale , with completion about now. Education Leeds pushed ahead with this against the wishes of the parents and schools concerned, in some cases. At the time I thought doing so much at once on a relatively short timescale sounded like a recipe for disaster. I envisaged cost overruns, delays, disruption of children's education you name it. Since then we have had the credit crunch which probably blew the PFI schemes out of the water.Anyway I am prepared to be pleasantly surprised so did it all go smoothly as planned or are you left with lots of half built schools, to be completed years late, and ratepayers/taxpayers picking up the bills from the PFI's ?

LS1 · Post by **LS1** » Thu 10 Sep, 2009 6:30 pm

Some of the ones I have seem fromt he outside look great, Allerton High, Allerton Grange, Lawnswood, Roundhay etc etc. I used to go to Allerton High and had a tour round as it was about to close. Whilst I can understand people having a certain nostalgia for the building, it was ina really sorry state bare brick, dank small and crappy!Kids deserve a decent place to study and not somewhere that has been modified and bodged from distant times gone by.

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Thu 10 Sep, 2009 6:41 pm

LS1 wrote: Some of the ones I have seem fromt he outside look great, Allerton High, Allerton Grange, Lawnswood, Roundhay etc etc. I used to go to Allerton High and had a tour round as it was about to close. Whilst I can understand people having a certain nostalgia for the building, it was ina really sorry state bare brick, dank small and crappy!Kids deserve a decent place to study and not somewhere that has been modified and bodged from distant times gone by. So not too bad then. My wife is a teacher, now retired , and every school she ever worked at,(1 in Bradford, two in Manchester and 1 in Cheshire) has been demolished and closed within a couple of years of her leaving. She went to the closing down party for her last school in July. It is being demolished as we speak except for the sports facilities. The site will be sold to a developer.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Thu 10 Sep, 2009 9:10 pm

The schools certainly look better, but the quality of the work is variable, to say the least.There have been many reported problem - Shekespeare school suffered a lot when it first opened. Mind you, as a PFI project the company building it only has an interest in the place for the life of the contract (typically 15-20 years). It will be interesting to see what state all these buildings are in within a few years of being handed back.

simong · Post by **simong** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 1:05 am

Pudsey Grangefield is a case in point - the old school building, which was admittedly woefully inadequate for a maths and computing college is now sitting boarded up, no doubt to be sold off for flats or something - Phill, if you have contacts and a spare Saturday...

Post by **cnosni** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 10:46 am

raveydavey wrote: The schools certainly look better, but the quality of the work is variable, to say the least.There have been many reported problem - Shekespeare school suffered a lot when it first opened. Mind you, as a PFI project the company building it only has an interest in the place for the life of the contract (typically 15-20 years). It will be interesting to see what state all these buildings are in within a few years of being handed back. Gotta agree with yoy there Ravey,butas an ex pupil of the original Shakespeare i can state that thae building was a cheap 1960s design ,falling apart at the seams edifice when i was there in 75-79.Seems theres no higher standards in the public sector.There is still a similar designed building to Shakespeare at Hugh Gaitskell in Beeston,went there last week.All windows replaced but still looked like its being held together by sticky tape

simonm · Post by **simonm** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 10:52 am

MY lad starts his new year at The new West Leeds / Wortley high today. I think it's called Swallow Hill college or summat like that. Looks very dapper, but is it best to have schools with over 1000 pupils in? Who knows, suppose we have to suck it and see!

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 11:42 am

simonm wrote: MY lad starts his new year at The new West Leeds / Wortley high today. I think it's called Swallow Hill college or summat like that. Looks very dapper, but is it best to have schools with over 1000 pupils in? Who knows, suppose we have to suck it and see! I hope the new school works out for your lad. I started at the old West Leeds (boys) 50 years ago this month. The school had about 500 pupils then. The head master used to teach classes, part time, and by the 2nd year probably knew every kid in the school.

Reginal Perrin · Post by **Reginal Perrin** » Fri 11 Sep, 2009 4:08 pm

Rodillian is built, looks fantastic. It's a pity the old Grammar School facade was not kept but you can't have it all I suppose.

simon2710 · Post by **simon2710** » Sun 13 Sep, 2009 10:06 pm

Allerton Grange High School rebuild is amazing!Looks more like a museum than a school and is now fully open. Nothing was rushed and no corners were cut as I'm aware.