New look for Holly Lodge Girls’ College
by Educate Magazine January 7, 2015 · All News / Secondary School News
Construction of the new £7 million Holly Lodge Girls’ College in West Derby has been completed. The new college contains 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.
The new build forms part of the Liverpool Schools Investment Programme, devised as a rescue after the scrapping of Liverpool’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project, and one of the Mayor of Liverpool’s key pledges.
Head teacher Julia Tinsley says: “Our pupils and staff absolutely love our new buildings and we simply can’t wait to start teaching in them.
“As well as getting much-needed new accommodation and ICT facilities, it will also be a much more environmentally friendly school and will cost us less to heat, maintain and repair.”
Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson says: “This is great news for current and future pupils at Holly Lodge and will help transform their education.
“This investment in Holly Lodge Girls’ College is much needed to make sure pupils get the most out of their learning, as the old school had simply become unmanageable in terms of the number, quality and location of the buildings.”
Along with a small extension to the existing sports hall the college has also received new administrative offices and a half-sized floodlit, artificial grass pitch, which will be made available to the local community.
The work has been carried out by Kier Construction with 85% of it being subcontracted to firms in Liverpool, and more than 100 apprenticeships being created through the Schools Investment Programme.
John O’Callaghan, managing director of Speke based Kier Construction, says: “Teamwork and collaboration were key to successfully delivering Holly Lodge Girls College on time and on budget, and we are very much looking forward to working on future projects with the School Investment team in 2015 and beyond’’
Pupils will move into the buildings in January, ahead of an official opening in March 2015.
