New Holly Lodge building named after women’s rights campaigner

The new-look Holly Lodge Girls’ College in Liverpool has been officially dedicated to the leader of the British suffragette movement who won women the right to vote.

The ‘Emmeline Pankhurst Building’, which was officially opened on Friday 6 March, forms the centrepiece of a £7 million revamp of the school site. It houses a main teaching block comprising new humanities classrooms, arts, music and drama spaces including an activity hall, and a Sixth Form centre with a central atrium and café area.

Joan Cunliffe who was a pupil at the school in 1928, officially opened the new building.

Headteacher Julia Tinsley says: “Staff and students are equally proud to have such fantastic facilities and are enjoying teaching and learning in 21st century surroundings at last.

“Not only is the building itself bringing a smile to the lips of our school community but its position at the heart of the school is making life more comfortable for students at lesson change, break and lunchtime.

“We have been really anxious to make sure that the new buildings enhance the beautiful campus on which the school is built, and maintain the unique character of Holly Lodge.

“It is also a much more environmentally friendly school, costing us less to heat, maintain and repair.”

The development forms part of the Liverpool Schools Investment Programme, devised as a rescue package following the scrapping of Wave Six of Liverpool’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project, and one of the Mayor of Liverpool’s key pledges.

The aim at Holly Lodge has been to reduce the number of school buildings, some of which were over 100 years old and unsuited to delivering a modern curriculum.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson says: “This investment in Holly Lodge Girls’ College has been much needed to make sure pupils get the most out of their learning.

“Less than three years since we started work on the Schools Investment Programme, this is the eleventh scheme that is either complete or underway and transforming the education for many thousands of our young people.”