Plans confirmed for college rebuilding
The Dukeries College, Ollerton, looks set to be rebuilt and become an academy within the next four years.
Nottinghamshire County Council was given official approval to go ahead with the Building Schools for the Future programme by representatives from the Department for Children, Schools and Families who attended a meeting with council officials last week.
The school is among seven in Newark and north Nottinghamshire that will be rebuilt or renewed as part of the Government’s schools building initiative.
The Nottinghamshire Learning Centre in Balderton will also benefit.
An academy involves a sponsor, such as a business, faith or voluntary group, providing around £2m in set up costs. It then has a major say in the running of the school.
The rest of the cost, £20m-£25m, would be met from the Building Schools for the Future scheme. The Government pays the school’s running costs.
The principal, Mr Danny Smith, said he understood the go-ahead had been given for the school to become an academy and was told this would happen within four years.
He said it was scheduled to be rebuilt but the new £1.6m construction centre would not be knocked down.
Mr Smith said he and the governors were happy for it to become an academy as long as the main sponsorship was through the local authority.
He understood the main sponsor was to be the highways department but this was yet to be confirmed.
Mr Smith said the sponsor would then appoint a consultancy to help with the project and one of its first jobs would be to identify a head and a governing body before consultation started.
Mrs Joyce Bosnjak, the cabinet member for children and young people, said: “This promises to be a very exciting project which will sustain improvements, building on a valued tradition of extended provision in the community.”