£2m revamp of Walsall school to be completed by January

The Mirus Academy in Walsall held talks with the Schools Minister David Laws last year over the poor state of the classrooms.

The school, which serves mainly the Beechdale community, has received funding to allow it to carry out some construction and revamp work on some of the buildings that are now over 50 years old and in desperate need of modernisation.

Bosses have today revealed details of the work.

The present sixth form centre will be transformed into an English and humanities block, the dining facilities will be upgraded and a new IT and sports centre will be fully refurbished, along with the revamp of a Specialist Learning Centre.

The bid was submitted in January as 2,015 academies competed for funding.

Interim principal Dan Neal said: "The refurbishment will be carried out in three phases with the whole project likely to be completed by January 2015.

"This funding will make a huge difference to the life choices of our students and, along with the recent positive Ofsted monitoring visit which gave us the green light to press ahead with our other improvements, it shows the Mirus Academy is moving in the right direction."

Bal Dutfield, director of community engagement and PR, said: "This is fantastic news for our students and the local community and will help towards the regeneration of Bloxwich.

"We are committed in raising the aspirations of our learners and this capital funding will allow us to provide current and future students with the necessary facilities to get to Ofsted outstanding. This investment will be absolutely pivotal in transforming the Mirus Academy and the futures of our students."

A senior government education official paid a visit to the site after the delegation went to see Mr Laws. School bosses presented the minister with photographs taken by pupils of the rundown rooms and along with six letters written by youngsters demanding action.

The school in Leamore Lane lost out in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding three years ago.

Plans to demolish the building and replace it with a brand new school in a £100 million scheme were scrapped after six schools in the borough lost out in a previous bid for Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding three years ago.

Chair of Walsall College Academies Trust, Jatinder Sharma, said: "Considerable resources and expertise have been set aside to ensure the transformation of the Mirus Academy and when Ofsted visited in February they acknowledged a number of actions which already show improvements.

"This funding will improve facilities and give the dedicated staff and management team yet another platform from which to build, with the full support and guidance from the governing body and sponsors Walsall College."