Islamic school gets go-ahead
AN Islamic school for 800 pupils will be built in Birmingham after the controversy surrounding the segregation of boys and girls at another secondary.
The Eden Boys’ Leadership Academy, Birmingham East, will be on the former Smith & Nephew medical goods manufacturing site in Alum Rock Road, Alum Rock.
The Academy opened on a temporary site in Whitehead Road, Aston, in September 2018.
Sponsor Star Academies hopes to move the school to its new permanent site in 2021.
The development is to accommodate displaced pupils after a decision was made to remove secondary years from Al-Hijrah School in Bordesley Green, due its controversial
segregation of older boys and girls. But the new academy building is also to meet growing demand for pupil places in the area.
A report to the council’s planning committee said: “The proposal is required to provide an education facility for secondary pupils for a maximum of 800, split between 600 secondary school places for boys aged 11 to 16 and 200 sixth-form pupils aged 16 to 18.
“A supporting statement confirms that demand for secondary school places is rapidly increasing as larger primary cohorts reach secondary age.
“This has resulted in additional places required in 2018/19 and beyond with some areas of the city experiencing a pressure for school places.
“The need for the new school has also arisen partly due to the removal of secondary provision at Al-Hijrah School, which is situated within Bordesley Green. It is also partly due to local authority’s statutory duty requirement to ensure that there are sufficient pupil places, promote diversity and increase parental choice through planning and securing additional provision.”
Two letters of objection were submitted to Birmingham City Council raising concerns over potential noise disturbance while one letter of support was lodged. But the plans were granted permission by council’s planning committee.
A spokeswoman for Eden Boys’ Leadership Academy, Birmingham East said: “Our school has been successfully operating in temporary accommodation since opening in September 2018 and the establishment of the new state-of-the-art facilities will make a difference not only to our pupils but to the local community as a whole.”