Finishing touches for schools' £45m rebuild

The finishing touches are being made to two schools in Wolverhampton undergoing a £45million rebuild.

Highfields Science Specialist School and Penn Fields School will share the same site in Penn.

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It is on track to be ready in time for the new school year in September. Building work is almost complete and attention has now turned to moving furniture inside, fitting carpets and painting walls.

Public artwork has also been installed inside the striking building.

Two hundred workmen will be working round the clock over the summer holidays so that the two schools are ready to welcome pupils in the new term.

Highfields features a sports hall, brand new classrooms, drama studio, cyber café and main hall, boasting a green, copper cladding exterior, above a new grand entrance.

Pupils at Penn Fields will have access to a new hydrotherapy pool, multi-sensory room, numerous classrooms, main hall and also a sports hall.

The pool, almost 4ft in depth, will be filled with water next week. The old Highfields school buildings will be demolished, with outdoor playing fields, multi-use games area and carparks taking their place.

Councillor Phil Page, cabinet member for schools, said today: "I think the two schools look fantastic.

"I've had the chance to take a look round and I'm very impressed. The young people in Wolverhampton deserve the best facilities. The cyber café is particularly impressive."

Meanwhile Elaine Stanley, headteacher of Penn Fields, said everyone at the school was raring to get into the new building.

"This has all been a dream come true for us," she said. "The school looks amazing. We are going to have a hydrotherapy pool which the old school didn't have."

Penn Fields has 160 pupils with special educational needs and Highfields has around 1,600 students. The two schools will share the same site and some facilities, but will remain completely separate and have their own reception areas. Work on the schools started in July 2010.

Both are in the sample phase of the £270m Building Schools for Future programme in Wolverhampton. Kings School and Tettenhall Wood Special School are also in that stage.

Elswhere in the city, Wednesfield High School is undergoing a £15 million rebuild and refurbishment as part of the programme.

A new science, technology, engineering and maths block is currently being built at the Lichfield Road site. It includes a 160-seated lecture theatre, engineering hall and 11 classrooms.

Wolverhampton Girls' High School, Smestow School and Penn Hall Special School are all in line for funding in the scheme as well.

Smestow School will get a new teaching block, entrance, administration area, sports hall and parking under a £9.6m project.

The Girls' High, on Tettenhall Road, will see a teaching block demolished and replaced with a two-storey building in a £7.7m scheme. Penn Hall will be refurbished inside to the tune of £2m.

North East Wolverhampton Academy is also undergoing a major transformation as part of the project, while three schools for excluded pupils – including the Midpoint Centre, Braybrook Centre and Orchard Centre – will all move to the former Parkfield School in Wolverhampton Road East.