LYDE Green’s new schools have reached an important milestone, as work to prepare them to open next year continues.
Structural work on the building that will house Lyde Green Community School, and a second site for Lyde Green Primary School, is now complete.
As work to finish the inside of the building in Honeysuckle Road is stepped up, parents of next year’s Reception and Year 7 pupils have been applying for places.
South Gloucestershire Council says both schools are on track to be handed over to the trusts that will run them next June, ready for children to arrive for lessons three months later.
The formal completion of the highest part of the building was marked by a ‘topping out’ ceremony on the roof of the three-storey secondary school section in November.
The council’s cabinet member with responsibility for schools, Ian Boulton, ceremonially tightened the final bolt on a girder to attach the last part of the structure and complete the school’s exterior construction in front of senior school and council figures, and builders.
Cllr Boulton said: “Thousands of local children will pass through these halls in the coming years and, starting in September, these buildings will be alive with learning.
“Getting this project up and running, having previously been stalled for years, is just one of the capital programmes that will make a real difference to families in South Gloucestershire.
“These are investments in our future.”
Once the interior work is finished during the first half of next year, the two schools will be handed over to Olympus Academy Trust, which will run the secondary school, and Castle School Education Trust (CSET), which will run the primary school in tandem with the existing Lyde Green Primary School in Willowherb Road.
Lyde Green Primary School head teacher Tom Hutchings said the topping out ceremony was “a significant moment in what has been a long journey towards being able to provide a local, high quality education for every child that lives on the Lyde Green estate”.
He said: “It is excellent that, having been notoriously difficult to get into, Lyde Green Primary School will now be able to welcome so many more children each year.
“Applications are open and going well, but we fully expect all families that would like a place at the school to be able to have one.”
The primary school site has places for 60 Reception pupils in September, with an eventual capacity of 420.
Parents apply to the school and its sister site, which also has 60 Reception places, as a single entity and children are allocated a place at one site or the other.
Applications are open until January 15.
The deadline for applications to Lyde Green Community School passed on October 31.
The school has 180 places for Year 7 pupils in September next year, with an eventual capacity of 900 across five year groups, for pupils aged 11 to 16.
Head teacher Tom Hill said: “This is an incredibly proud moment for everyone involved.
“Lyde Green Community School is being built to provide an exceptional learning environment, where students can thrive academically and personally.
“This milestone shows that our vision is becoming a reality, and we can’t wait to welcome our first cohort of students next year.”
The schools are the largest in England designed and built to Passivhaus energy efficiency standards, which include very high standards of insulation and heat recovery, to ensure they are carbon neutral and cheaper to run.
The timber building has all-electric heating and solar panels on the roof.
Building contractor BAM has already built two other energy-efficient schools in Frenchay and Winterbourne.
Construction director Justin Price said: “The topping-out of the Lyde Green schools is an important moment in the creation of a truly sustainable, future-focused learning environment for children in South Gloucestershire.”
The total cost of the project is more than £58.3 million, including £24m from South Gloucestershire Council, and more than £34.3m from the Department of Education under the Free Schools Programme.
Campaigning for a school to serve Emersons Green and Lyde Green began more than 20 years ago, and a bid was finally approved by the Department for Education in 2021.
The school originally had an opening date of 2022, but a succession of delays saw this slip back by four years.