First phase of education shake-up has been completed in Rotherham

Ten of the town’s schools have been rebuilt and another five refurbished with the addition of some new buildings, as part of the 95 million modernisation scheme.

The scheme was Rotherham’s first PFI project, using private cash to carry out the school rebuilding and improvement work.

It has also included new young people’s centres at Thornhill Primary and Wath Comprehensive, while existing centres at Wingfield, Clifton, Thrybergh and Winterhill secondary schools have also been refurbished.

Money was also made available for new Sure Start and special centres for younger children and their families at Thornhill, Ferham, Kimberworth and Coleridge primary schools.

Another spin-off from the multi-million pound project has been has been improvements to the school meals service, with all the new schools fitted out with the very latest catering facilities.

All 15 schools involved in the first phase of the project have new facilities for sports and arts. Three schools - Ferham, ClIfton and Winterhill - all have new purpose-built sports and arts centres.

Already the town has been told it will be part of a new national scheme known as Building Schools for the Future, which aims to rebuild or refurbish all secondary schools in the UK over the next 15 years.

It is expected that Rotherham will participate in this programme during 2010 to 2013. But work will start on regenerating more primary schools in the next few months after Rotherham was chosen to become a pilot project area for the new national Primary Capital Programme.

Millions more pounds will be invested in new primary schools, beginning with 6.5 million to replace the existing Herringthorpe Infants and Junior Schools with brand new buildings. Other primaries will then be regenerated as the programme develops, with the help of another 5 million of council investment.