Academy awarded over £8 million for expansion

Etonbury Academy in Arlesey received news from Central Bedfordshire Council last Thursday that its £8.25 million bid to expand the academy as a middle school and also offer GCSE subjects for 2015 school year has been approved.

The proposal is to expand from the current capacity of 480 to provide a total of 600 middle school places and to change the school’s age range to offer 300 places in the upper school age range.

Principal Dr Al Mistrano said he was really pleased with the overwhelming support from the community: “Not only is this good news for Etonbury, as it confirms our success and popularity in the local area, but it also shows the great value of our collaborations with Robert Bloomfield Academy and Samuel Whitbread Academy within Bedfordshire East Multi-Academy Trust.”

The school has already started the half-term with a new drama theatre, a nature reserve, new school farm and a new year 5 playing area. It is also looking into further investment from Sport England and the FA to develop sports facilities which would benefit the wider community.

Plans for commissioning new school places at the start of the school year in 2015 were approved by members of Central Bedfordshire’s executive on Tuesday, May 14.

The council is also proposing to expand the current capacity of St Mary’s Church of England Academy in Stotfold from 225 places to 300 places and expand Robert Bloomfield Academy in Shefford to provide a total of 840 permanent places. Robert Bloomfield has been granted £1.4 million to support the expansion by replacing the mobile buildings currently used and replacing them with purpose-built, state of the art classrooms.

Cllr Mark Versallion, executive member for children’s services, said: “A key role for the Council is to ensure that all our children have a place at a local school. Our New School Places programme is a hugely important piece for work for us and we estimate that we’ll spend over £100m in the next five years on implementing it.”