Russell Scott Primary School in Denton is to be knocked down and rebuilt after years of flooding, electrical and structural problems that followed a botched refurbishment by the collapsed contractor Carillion. Education minister Lucy Powell joined headteacher Steve Marsland and the school's student council to break ground on the new building at the Clare Street site.
A decade of disruption
The problems began after a multi-million-pound rebuild in 2015, when Carillion, the company contracted to carry out repairs, left the 150-year-old school with a catalogue of failures. Carillion went bankrupt in 2018, leaving the school with no way of recouping the cash invested.
The crumbling building and unusable sports facilities have triggered a number of closures in recent years. Mr Marsland, who has been fighting for a new school for around 15 years, said a generation of children in Denton have come through primary school with no sports or outdoor facilities because of the botched job.
New building plans
The new two-storey building will comprise classrooms, a nursery, a designated SEND unit, admin spaces, an assembly hall, kitchen and other ancillary spaces. Plans also include a new playing pitch capable of accommodating a 5v5 football pitch and a high quality Multi Use Games Area (MUGA).
To avoid placing pupils in temporary classrooms, the new school will be constructed next to the existing one on the western part of the site. Once complete, pupils will transfer across, allowing demolition of the former school building to start at the end of the project.
Community praised
Speaking after the ground-breaking, Ms Powell said: "There has been fantastic ambition here to rebuild the school, which is long overdue. The head here, Steve Marsland, has pursued this for 15 years and it is fantastic to see it now getting underway."
Mr Marsland praised the community for supporting the school in recent years, saying: "Our community has waited so long for this and I just want to credit them. Because they've had a reet rough do of it." He also highlighted new safeguards introduced by the government, including two people based on the site three days a week to oversee the work.
The new Russell Scott Primary School is expected to be completed in 2028.
