LSIP-funded block boosts College’s capacity

Kier has completed work on a £3.7m Key Stage 1 block at Liverpool College as part of the Liverpool Schools Investment Programme.

The development, designed by K2 Architects, which has been prolific in local schools projects, will allow the school to grow its headcount by 196 over the next few years, helping to tackle oversubscription.

Liverpool College, which takes pupils aged from 4 – 19, converted from a private school to a non-fee paying academy in 2013. Since then it has seen a massive growth in demand for places, with more than 400 applications for 84 reception class places.

The new building replaces an overcrowded Victorian villa with small classrooms and enjoys views across the fields on its 28-acre campus.

Headteacher Hans van Mourik Broekman said: “We are really pleased to have been given the opportunity to achieve the dream of growing the school as an educational opportunity for all children in Liverpool.

Joe Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool, said: “Liverpool College is a brilliant school and as a result is hugely oversubscribed, which is why I am pleased we have been able to invest in the site to give more pupils the opportunity to attend.

“The funding we have made available to Liverpool College and other schools in the city is making a massive difference to pupils and staff, enabling them to teach in better surroundings using the latest equipment.”

The LSIP programme has seen 22 schools rebuilt and refurbished over the last five years using council and government cash, the city council said, with more than 14,000 students directly benefitting, while 200 young people have worked ion apprenticeships on the sites.

Around 62% of the investment was spent with Liverpool firms, rising to 74% across the whole of Merseyside. Funding of £45m has so far been generated from the sale of former school sites for housing development to help fund the programme.

Ten housing sites with 650 new homes have been created, while the council said that it has further benefited from an annual £650,000 ‘windfall’ from the lease of buildings, which it will receive for the next 25 years to reinvest in services.