A public consultation has opened on the planned new secondary school for South Leeds, the Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy, which has moved a stage closer and is now in a ‘pre-opening phase.’
The new school is set to be built on the site of the former Middleton High School next to Middleton Leisure Centre, off Ring Middleton. The new building is set to be ready for September 2022, but the school will open in temporary classrooms on the site in September 2021. The new school will address the shortage of secondary school places in South Leeds.
Children currently in Year 6 wishing to apply for a place next year need to apply via Leeds City Council’s application process which is currently open and closes on 31 October 2020. You can find full details on the Council’s website here.
The school will be an 11-16 provision with an admission number of 210 (7 form entry) and a full capacity of 1,050 students. As we previously reported the school is named after a former Cockburn pupil who won the Victoria Cross during the First World War.
The school will state funded and will be built and run by the Cockburn Multi Academy Trust (MAT). Cockburn MAT already run Cockburn School, Cockburn John Charles Academy, Middleton Primary School and Cockburn Haigh Road Academy. As we have previously reported, local authorities such as Leeds City Council are no longer allowed to build new schools.
You can view the consultation document here, this goes into more detail about how the MAT approaches education, its ethos, approach to the curriculum, etc.
David Gurney, Executive Headteacher of the Cockburn Multi-academy Trust said:
“I am delighted that we have now progressed to the pre-opening phase of the Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy. The community of south Leeds is in need of more secondary places and this new school will provide an excellent education for these young people modelled on the success of our other secondary schools.”
The consultation runs until Friday 23 October 2020 and you can contribute via an online questionnaire here, or join one of two online events:
- 5-6pm, Tuesday 29 September 2020
- 11am-12pm, Monday 5 October 2020
Booking details can be found here.
