A proposed extension to Ballakermeen High School would provide badly needed learning, examination and dining space.
 
Tynwald will this month be asked to support the proposal for the ?3.2 million extension.
 
Accommodation for the sixth form is ‘cramped and not conducive to learning and attainment of the highest levels’, said Richard Collister, Estates Director for the Department of Education and Children.
 
With increasing numbers of students staying on into sixth form, the situation needs to be addressed.
 
Examinations for more than 600 candidates take over the school’s hall, sports hall, gym and drama spaces, curtailing other activities. The extension would relieve this pressure, allowing normal activities to go on during exam periods.
 
The dining room, which seats 300, is inadequate for a school of 1,500 pupils and leads to rushed sittings. Inadequate capacity encourages students to go off site, where they can consume less nutritious meals. Encouraging healthy eating is an Isle of Man Government and Department priority.
 
The extension is a continuation of the investment in front-line education that began with new facilities being added at Ramsey Grammar and Queen Elizabeth II High Schools and which last year saw a new St Ninian’s Lower School open at Bemahague in Onchan.
 
The extension would link to the existing post-16 centre and kitchen.
 
A new additional study area, an enlarged common room, four additional classrooms, and a tutorial room would all be created on the first and second floor levels.
 
At ground floor, the extension would provide a further dining hall, increasing lunchtime capacity to 600, and there would be an additional servery and improved kitchen preparation and food storage facilities.
 
Plans for the extension have already gone on show to local residents.
 
Provided Tynwald supports the scheme, the successful tenderer Tooms Bros (1994) Ltd would start work at the end of this school year, to make the most of the six-week summer holidays, and would complete the scheme by October 2014.
 
The school would close at noon on the last day of the summer term, Friday 19th July, to enable contractors to safely move heavy equipment onto the site and ensure a prompt start to the project.
 
- Ends -