New £1.6m sports hall opens at Dudley academy
They were unable to play top sports matches indoors at school and had to use dining rooms for PE lessons.
But now staff and students have celebrated a new sporting future as new £1.6 million facilities were opened at an academy.
Football, basketball and badminton are among the sports that are catered for and can be enjoyed by pupils attending Holly Hall Academy in Dudley.
A modern fitness suite packed with treadmills, exercise bikes, cross-trainers and weights machines has also been created.
Yet the facilities will not just be for sporting excellence, as staff hope to teach students a range of healthy lifestyle tips.
An outdoor gym, similar to others built in parks in Dudley and outside Russells Hall Hospital, has also been installed.
New changing facilities have been created at the sports centre, on the academy site in Scotts Green Close, Holly Hall.
Part of the money has also gone towards creating a modern dance studio with a sprung floor.
Building work was completed over the past 12 months after Holly Hall was given cash through a government-backed fund.
Workers from Deeleys Construction have completed the building work with the support of architect Andrew Langley of BNP Paribas.
Principal Graham Lloyd, who has been at the school for more than a decade, said staff and pupils were delighted with the transformation.
"The facilities we had here were not up to standard before and we have worked hard to get to this stage so it is fantastic," he said.
"It is absolutely essential for an academy of this size to have these facilities.
"We didn't have a place previously to host basketball match so we had to hire sports hall at another school.
"Now we have got great sports facilities. Part of our mission is also about health minds and healthy bodies so we want to do lessons on healthy living and keeping fit."
The school had previously been struggling because the old sports hall had suffered severe water damage in recent years resulting in £30,000 running repairs.
Plans to build an outdoor all-weather pitch have been put on hold in the meantime after staff failed to secure the additional cash needed.
The proposals for the much-needed pitch, which would be created on land near the sports hall had won approval from planners at Dudley Council. But the funding application for around £500,000 failed to be approved by government officials.
The opening of the sports hall follows the completion of a new design and technology block at the school, also built by Deeleys Construction in 2006.
