Shortstown Celebrates Official Opening of Brand New Primary School!
A Bedford Borough village has celebrated the opening of a brand new primary school, as the Council's major investment programme in school buildings and facilities continues. The official opening of Shortstown Primary School, which opened on schedule at the beginning of the autumn term, took place on Thursday 24th October. The two form entry school was formally opened by Mayor Dave Hodgson.
The new school replaces the previous one form entry Shortstown Lower School, and will accommodate extra pupils from the increase in housing development in the local area.
With a national crisis in primary school places on the horizon, the new Shortstown Primary School is another illustration of how the crisis has been averted in Bedford Borough. This has involved careful planning to identify and meet demand via an ongoing programme of major, targeted investment in expanded or new schools, of which Shortstown Primary is another example.
The building has been designed and built by Willmott Dixon. During the building phase, Willmott Dixon worked closely with the Head teacher, Denise Cottam, to ensure the completed building met the needs of the school. Also, pupils from the previous school, staff members and members of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) visited the site to view the building progress - from the first dig, up to the end of the summer term.
Mayor Dave Hodgson said: "The children themselves were able to see their new school taking shape, and I know that there was a lot of excitement and anticipation about this brand new facility. It was a real pleasure to help formally open the school now that it is up and running and I wish all the pupils and staff the very best for an enjoyable and successful future for Shortstown Primary School.
Lib Dem Cllr Henry Vann, Portfolio Holder for Education at Bedford Borough Council, said: "Shortstown Primary provides the right amount of classroom space for inspirational teaching and learning to take place. Through a vision of 'Creating Excellent Teaching and Learning Space', Bedford Borough Council is investing millions of pounds on school builds to ensure that every child within Bedford Borough will have a place at school for the foreseeable future."
Head teacher, Denise Cottam, said: "The new school provides the opportunity for our children to succeed in an aspirational setting. The commitment of staff, families, community and Bedford Borough are what makes the school great. We wanted to ensure the ethos of the school moved with us into the new building, and on the opening day we saw that it had."
With regards to schools admissions for this year, Bedford Borough Council made sure that over 99% of parents have secured a place for their child at a school of their choice. The Council is consistently in the top group of local authorities for securing 'first preference' figures.
18 out of the 19 Local Authority maintained schools inspected by Ofsted last year were judged to be either good or outstanding - that's 94%
Last year, schools in Bedford Borough were praised after the Local Authority area was recognised by Ofsted as offering one of the best opportunities in the country for children to attend a good or outstanding primary school. Schools in Bedford Borough were ranked as 11th out of 150 local authorities across the country and number one in the Eastern region, with 87% of children attending a good or outstanding lower or primary school.
For further information on Shortstown Primary go to http://www.shortstownprimary.co.uk/