A brand-new secondary school is to be built as part of the flagship Victoria North new town regeneration project after getting the go-ahead today by government.
The 11-16 years co-educational school, to be run by Dixons Academy Trust, will be located within the regeneration area and directly linked to the significant housing growth coming forward across Collyhurst South and the wider Victoria North redevelopment, providing the necessary future school place capacity for families moving into the area.
The new school will be at the heart of the Victoria North development – a regeneration programme that will see up to 15,000 new homes built between Victoria Train Station and Queen’s Park in Collyhurst over the next 15 years in seven new and existing neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood will be linked by high quality green spaces that will open up and celebrate the River Irk.
The programme has already seen 430 homes completed, with another 550 currently on site and a further 4,801 with planning approval as part of the first phase of delivering the council’s long-term plan for investment and redevelopment in north Manchester.
Councillor Julie Reid, Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People, Manchester City Council, said: “Getting the go-ahead for this brand-new school marks a significant moment for this part of the city, both for families already living locally and for all the many more who will move here in the future as the Victoria North new town ambitions are realised. It’s brilliant news for the area and alongside our existing secondary schools in the area is going to help ensure our families now and in the future have access to a great local educational offer with a place in a good school.”
Also announced today by government was a £3 billion investment in providing new specialist places in mainstream schools for pupils who have special educational needs.
Councillor Julie Reid said: “We very much welcome the additional funds announced today to develop specialist provision in mainstream schools, which aligns with the approach we’ve been taking in Manchester for the last few years now to meet the needs of our children and young people locally who have special educational needs. We look forward to hearing what our allocation of these funds will be, so that we can further extend this work.”
