"Wow" factor should make Academy an inspiring choice for Littlehampton's future

Copies of the prospectus for the new Littlehampton Academy, which is due to replace Littlehampton Community School (LCS) in just under a year's time, will be handed out at an open event for prospective year 7 students and their parents.

But if the prospectus is the most public sign yet of the approaching academy, behind the scenes there is intense activity to prepare for the transformation.

As the Gazette reported last week, interviews for the 125,000-a-year post of principal designate will be held shortly, important decisions have to be taken on courses for students starting GCSEs next year, and there is staff training to organise.

Then there is the matter of the new building. While the academy itself opens next September in the existing school, plans for the dramatic structure which will house the new institution from 2011/12 are still being refined.

Government agrees 31m funding

LCS head Jayne Wilson gave the Gazette a detailed update of the progress being made towards academy status, just as it was confirmed that the government has given final approval for the move, and for the 31m funding for the rebuild, to provide places for 1,600 year 7-11 students, and a further 250 in the sixth-form.

Most of the students will be taught in a new main block of two/three storeys, arranged in six "chapters" '” wings of the building accommodating one year group each, for years 7-11 and the sixth-form.

Each chapter will also have its own dining area, to help create the sense of being in a smaller group, rather than a large, anonymous mass of students.

The new block will not only be light and airy and designed to high standards of energy efficiency, it will also be bristling with the latest educational technology, including developments which could never have been achieved in the oldest parts of LCS, let alone some of the newer classrooms.

"It will automatically raise people's aspirations by simply being a 'wow!' building," said Mrs Wilson. "We then have to make sure that the correct infrastructure is in place to keep those aspirations high."

"Vocational street"

Each student will have their own PDA (personal digital assistant, or pocket computer) carrying study and timetable information and in the classrooms there will be wireless internet access and large computer display screens with information relevant to the lesson being taught.

And with the likelihood that all exams will be taken online within the next five years, the academy's students will be more than up with the game.

Mrs Wilson is equally excited about the plans for a "vocational street" within the new main block, perhaps including a travel agency and catering kitchen, as well as other workplaces, where students could gain experience of job-related training as close as possible to real-life situations.

While most of the old LCS will be swept away, some newer parts will remain, including the Roddick Centre for business and enterprise, the library, sixth-form college, science department and sports hall. However, it's possible some of these buildings will be put to different uses under the academy set-up.

Academy sponsors Woodard Schools and West Sussex County Council are working closely with the LCS management team on the plans, which in their current form have the new block to the south of the existing school, allowing construction work to progress without affecting the current buildings.

Access to the academy remains an uncertainty, especially while plans for the new Fitzalan Boulevard link road are still up in the air, but more important in the long term will be the path to learning mapped out by the new institution.

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