{"id":1825,"date":"2010-09-29T09:38:39","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T09:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2010-09-29T09:38:39","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T09:38:39","slug":"new-build-academy-%e2%80%98a-nightmare%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=1825","title":{"rendered":"New Build Academy: \u2018a nightmare\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/strong>New build is not always the answer, as a flagship academy school, designed by Foster & Partners, has been branded a \u2018nightmare\u2019 by the woman who runs it.
\n<\/span>
\nThe \u00a331 million Business Academy Bexley, a 2004 Stirling Prize nominee in south-east London, was the UK\u2019s first city academy, and was opened by former prime minister Tony Blair seven years ago this month.<\/p>\n

But it has been hit by a catalogue of maintenance problems, and the school\u2019s chief executive Sam Elms said this week that if she had her way she would move the school into a building more suitable for teaching.<\/p>\n

The constant problems have meant the school\u2019s deficit could now rise from the current \u00a3500,000 to more than \u00a3850,000 next year, according to the Times Educational Supplement. The school has had to shell out \u00a315,000-a-year on temporary changing facilities because Foster\u2019s building has just two changing rooms for 1,350 pupils. It is also spending a further \u00a314,000 on external storage because there is not enough room on site. Other problems include broken boilers, sewage defects, peeling paint, and a leaking roof which has continued to baffle experts.<\/p>\n

Elms told today\u2019s Times Educational Supplement: \u201cThe roof leaks across the building which causes the floor to bubble.\u201d \u00a0She added: \u201cIt\u2019s a hugely expensive building and costs us an absolute fortune. It\u2019s a nightmare to run. If we could move to another building, we would. It\u2019s not great but we do the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The academy was intended to set the standard for New Labour\u2019s city academies programme \u2013 and includes high-end fixtures and fittings such as taps, door handles and even toilet seats shipped in from Italy. \u00a0It has now begun an austerity drive which has included not replacing staff who left over the summer and swapping pricey broken taps and toilet seats with less expensive models. \u00a0When it was launched it was hailed as a model of future learning.<\/p>\n

CABE said at the time: \u201cThe light and airy exterior is full of bustling young people busily engaged in activities, although regrettably not visible to the outside world.\u201d \u00a0And on the fit-out of the building, it added: \u201cThe provision of furniture and equipment is almost lavish.\u201d \u00a0Foster & Partners declined to comment.<\/p>\n

BD Online News: LINK<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New build is not always the answer, as a flagship academy school, designed by Foster & Partners, has been branded a \u2018nightmare\u2019 by the woman who runs it. The \u00a331 million Business Academy Bexley, a 2004 Stirling Prize nominee in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1826,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/1826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}