Goole Times (1 Sept 05)
State-of-art academy set to open its doors
Thorne's new £24 million Academy - to replace the town's Grammar School - is set to open its doors to staff and pupils this month. Finishing touches are this week being put to the new building, fronting Church Balk, which has taken fifteen months to build. The first intake of pupils, due to cross the threshold next Thursday, September 8, will enter a state-of-the-art facility which will specialise in business and enterprise.
Although the first pupils are not due until next Thursday, local residents and neighbours have already been given a sneak preview of what the Academy will offer - when they attended a special `look- around' evening last week. They were welcomed by Principal Ian Brew in the 450-seat lecture theatre, where mention of the policy that will prevent students from leaving school during the day drew a spontaneous round of applause.
They were then taken on group tours to see the sports hall, changing facilities, dance studio and fitness suite and some of the Academy's 80 classrooms, including graphics, textiles, food, multi-material rooms and science laboratories.
The IT server room is bigger than that of many businesses and serves 750 personal computers located in classroom and study areas throughout the Academy, and linked into the school network, The visitors also saw the staffroom and Sixth Form study centre and common room and learned how the closed-circuit television system which will enable all activity to be monitored round the clock throughout the building and its grounds.
Strict discipline will be one of the key aims of the new Academy - with compulsory uniform, a house system, prefects and detention all being used as tools in the drive for excellence.While the raising of academic standards is paramount, Mr Brew stressed that they would be striving to educate the whole being - an outward bound weekend is planned for sixth formers, two specialists had been recruited to develop rugby throughout the school, and high levels of pastoral care would be available.
Following the visit Mr Brew said: "I'm delighted so many of our neighbours took the time to come and visit the Academy. They have had to put up with traffic and noise during the last 15 months and we wanted to thank them for their patience and understanding. "The Academy is more than a school, it's an asset for the community and what happens here will be very much a partnership effort between students, staff, parents, governors and the local people of Thorne.
With their support we can make it a school to be proud of." Work is currently under way to demolish most of the former Grammar School, which has served the town for the last 75 years. Only the front wing will be retained, and converted into flats. Two smaller blocks of flats will be built nearby - alongside the tennis courts.