The new Whitehaven Academy will include 21 classrooms, seven science labs, two art studios with views across to the Lakeland fells and three design and technology rooms. It will make the best use of natural light and feature bright internal walkways.

The new build is due to open in spring 2022, meaning students who join in September will be among the first to take lessons there. The three-storey academy will boast a well-equipped learning resource centre, high-spec ICT throughout and each classroom will benefit from state-of-the-art interactive whiteboards.

The new facility has been developed on the Academy’s existing live site, so care and consideration has been required to keep the existing site operational during the partial demolition.  We undertook upfront reviews of the utilities and capacities of the local network due to the complexity of keeping the existing site live whilst construction began on the new school. There was also a keen focus on implementing standard approaches within classrooms for ease of use in operation and to expediate time on site.