£100k revamp to help pupils thrive
A Bath school celebrated a £100,000 investment by Bath & North East Somerset Council to improve classrooms and equipment as term ended.
Lansdown Park Rush Hill Academy was officially opened in January 2019 to educate and improve the life chances of young people from the Bath area who have been excluded from their secondary school, or are at risk of exclusion.
Based in the former Bath Community College, the academy, run by Learn@ Multi-academy Trust (MAT), now has an additional and renovated wing and improved outdoor spaces for sport and conversation. Renovations include two classrooms, a library and study area, indoor activity space for sport and new student toilets.
Learn@ MAT aims for zero exclusions from its schools so has developed nurture rooms for students to have quiet space to communicate freely and in confidence.
Councillor Kevin Guy, cabinet member for children’s services at B&NES Council, joined staff and students to tour the new rooms and hear about how 25 students successfully returned to mainstream schools this year while others have gone on to study animal care, barbering, mechanics and childcare.
From September the school will have places for 32 students from Years 7 to 11, up from 20.
Assistant head teacher Zoe Jenkins said: “We are now in a much better position to provide more individual learning and care.
“Part of the refurbishment was a dedicated ‘Thrive’ room that feels safe and calm to offer a social and emotional development approach for individual students. We also have more opportunity to provide life skills and careers support with a new food technology kitchen.”
Year 10 student Jake said: “The light and size of the rooms will make a big difference to being able to work. The new library space will mean more learning opportunities and more space means that we can learn through experiments and more active activities, not just books and writing.”
Cllr Guy said: “We want the best for every child and young person in the district so I was delighted to view these new facilities which will ultimately help improve the students’ life chances.”