FAQs

A significant amount of educational space currently on the site is not in a condition where it is able to be used. The site has the potential to have over 1,000 students, but currently the Academy caters for 570 secondary school pupils. A new Academy would have the same capacity by making more efficient use of the site and providing brand new facilities.

• Phoenix Academy is an excellent school, rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted – but we want to be even better and the buildings which it occupies hinders this. It is vital for the children who attend the Academy both now and in the future that we ensure they have the best possible environment in which to learn and achieve.
• A key consideration of our proposals has been to limit the impact of any construction work on current students. We will be phasing the development and utilising temporary accommodation to ensure that we can continue to deliver an excellent education.

• With no Government funding available, in order to enable our development of the new academy building, sports facilities and other community opportunities, we are planning to self-fund the enhancement of our school through the building of new homes on the site.
• At current, the Academy land is not being effectively utilised, and moving forward in this way allows us to fund the new educational facilities as no public funding is available.

Whilst this is an option we have considered, given the Academy’s limited budget for maintenance and the lack of external funding sources, this would not tackle some of site issues that the Academy faces, and it would not be able to provide new buildings or sports facilities.

Due to the layout of the Vibe, as with many other aspects of the site, it has presented a number of challenges to the effective operation of the school. These challenges are so substantive, that the school has made the decision to use classrooms in other, older parts of the building, rather than use the Vibe. This is despite those classrooms possessing many challenges of their own.

As part of developing our plans to enhance the education environment on the site, we looked at opportunities to reuse and improve facilities where possible. Most of the buildings, including the Vibe, would need extensive refurbishment that would be very costly and result in compromised education facilities. In particular, detailed analysis was undertaken on the Vibe building. Unfortunately due to the small windows and complex structure, the refurbishment of this building would result in a compromised education facility and would be as costly as building a new purpose built academy. Redeveloping this building therefore allows us to create a better educational space along with exemplary sports facilities.