New life for former Wolverhampton school building
A former school building on one of the pathways into Wolverhampton City Centre is set to be brought back into use as a new free school.
Part of the old Parkfield High School on Wolverhampton Road East will be taken over by The British Sikh School from September.
The new school, which plans to take in 120 pupils initially, will share the site with a Pupil Referral Unit which has been based there for the last two years.
The building will be used by the school until July 2016 when the operation will be moved to permanent premises in Blakenhall.
The move will be seen as good news by Wolverhampton City Council, which has been trying to sell the land since plans to open a new library there were dropped last year.
Project manager Manoher Singh, said: "Parkfield will be our temporary site for a year while the main site is being developed.
"The site is ideal as a temporary home, having previously been used as a school, and will allow us to get the school up and running in September as planned."
Mr Singh added that minor refurbishments would take place to allow the school to access a minimum of four classrooms, canteen space and the playing fields.
He also said parents should see the fact that the school is sharing the site with Pupil Referral Unit as 'a big positive', after concerns were raised at a public consultation last week.
"Some parents were worried but I can assure everyone that the location of the PRU will have no bearing on the running of the school," he said.
"In fact we are seeing it as a big positive. The PRU has a really strong skills base that has the potential for shared services."
The DfE will inspect the premises prior to the school's first intake in September.
Parkfield High became South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy six years ago and moved to new premises in Dudley Street, Bilston, in 2012.
The site has been earmarked for a number of uses in recent years, although until now nothing has got off the ground.
It had originally been touted as a new home for Springvale Library, but those plans were scrapped. It was also due to become new council offices, but again the proposals were dropped.
