Work Begins at New Olney Secondary School Campus

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 26th Jul 2005

The new Olney secondary school campus, which will open in September 2006, will serve mainly children coming from Olney Middle School and Lavendon Combined School, who have been given the opportunity to be involved in the design of the new school through a series of workshops.

The new campus will be part of Ousedale School in Newport Pagnell but will provide full facilities with dedicated teaching staff on site for students up to the age of 16. Sixth-form students will go on to Ousedale. In its first year, the school will be open to years 7 and 8, which will be approximately 180 students. These students will no longer have to travel to the Ousedale campus in Newport Pagnell

The school will provide many benefits to the Olney community. The sporting facilities on site, including a sports hall, playing fields and a multi-use games area, with sufficient on-site parking, will be available for community use. As part of the construction contract, traffic calming will be introduced to reduce speeds along Aspreys Road.

Councillor Euan Henderson, Liberal Democrat cabinet member with responsibility for Milton Keynes Council's school building programme, said: "The Olney community has been waiting for its own secondary facility for some time and I am delighted that we can now deliver this. It is an important project within our school building programme and will support the process of changing the age at which pupils transfer to secondary school. We are particularly pleased to be working so closely in partnership with Olney Town Council on this project."

Our photo shows (left to right) the Mayor of Olney, Sally Rogers, local Liberal Democrat Councillor Cllr Graham Mabbutt, who has been campaigning hard for this school for several years, and Ousedale headteacher, Ken Leaver, cutting the first piece of soil.