Radcliffe's long awaited new school campus is scheduled to be complete by 2025, it has been revealed with pupils being educated in high quality temporary buildings from next year.

Star Radcliffe Academy, will provide 750 places for pupils from Years 7 to 11 and will take in its first intake in September 2024. It will be built on the former site of Radcliffe Riverside High School on Spring Lane. 

Plans to demolish a temporary leisure centre on the site, as well as the former school buildings will be discussed at a planning committee meeting next week. 

Applications for the school are being taken and open events are being held, with the next one on Tuesday, October 24 at The Outreach Centre on Blackburn Street from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.

Documents published by the council following its Planning Control Committee meeting on Tuesday revealed permanent buildings for the school will not be complete until May 2025.

Bury Times: What Star Radcliffe Academy could look like once construction is completeWhat Star Radcliffe Academy could look like once construction is complete (Image: Bury Council)

It is intended for pupils to learn in temporary classrooms for two terms until the new buildings are complete.

The documents, submitted by Morgan Sindall Construction said: “To enable the school to open and enrol its first year of 150 students at the start of the 2024- 2025 academic year in September 2024, temporary teaching accommodation is required, which would be used while the permanent school is being built.

“It is intended that the temporary school would be utilised for the first two academic terms up to the Easter break in 2025, at which point the first cohort of students would decant across to use the new main school building for the summer term onwards.

“The construction programme for the project, plans for completion of the permanent school building in May 2025, allowing for the temporary accommodation to be removed and the subsequent completion of the school's outdoor spaces and sports facilities.”

Bury Times: Permanent buildings for the long-awaited new school are expected to be completed in May 2025 Permanent buildings for the long-awaited new school are expected to be completed in May 2025 (Image: Bury Council)

This month, Star Academies announced it is accepting applications for places at Star Radcliffe Academy along with existing schools in the borough.  

The site is currently used by Spring Lane Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) School, as well as the leisure centre which contains a swimming pool.

Earlier this year, the council revealed that the Department for Education (DfE) had experienced "significant challenges" in delivering its school building programme, which had caused delays with the opening of a number of free schools.

There is currently no high school in the town and the project is seen as a key element in the regeneration of Radcliffe.