Plans go in for Gorton primary school

Architect Cassidy + Ashton has outlined proposals for a 472-place school on the site of the former Gorton Mount Primary Academy, due to be run by the Vantage Academies Trust.

The site just off Longsight Road currently houses a two-storey building which has remained largely vacant since Gorton Mount Academy moved to a new site in 2016. Only the ground floor is currently occupied, and this is also due to be vacated by this summer.

Supported by the Education & Skills Funding Agency, the plans put forward for the site include the demolition of the main building and replacing it with a mixed one-and-two storey building featuring nearly 25,000 sq ft of internal space.

A portable building on the site will be retained to be used as school accommodation from September 2018 while the main school is being built. This will be removed once the project completes and will be transformed into a landscaped area.

As well as the new-build school, there are also plans to install a playground, all-weather pitch, and parking spaces. Access will be via Longsight Road, while service access will come from Mount Road.

In total, the school will have places for 420 primary school pupils and 52 nursery places.

Contractor Conlon has also been involved with pre-application discussions on building the school, while the design team also includes Arcadis.