Ground broken on new Russell Scott Primary School

Russell Scott Primary School is a crumbling primary school in Denton that had ‘a reet tough do of it’ after being left with a botched new building over a decade ago.

The education minister Lucy Powell was recently invited to break ground on their brand-new school. 

Russell Scott Primary School has been plagued by flooding, electrical and structural issues – triggering a number of closures in recent years. The problems began after a disastrous multi-million-pound rebuild in 2015 when Carillion, the company contracted to carry out the repairs, left the 150-year-old school with a catalogue of failures.

Carillion went bankrupt in 2018, leaving the school with no way of recouping the cash invested into the school. The crumbling building and unusable sports facilities will now be replaced by a modern, eco-friendly school.

The new two-storey building will comprise classrooms, a nursery, a designated SEN unit, admin spaces, assembly hall, kitchen and other ancillary spaces. Also included in the plans are a new playing pitch provision, capable of accommodating a 5v5 football pitch, and high quality Multi Use Games Area (MUGA).

The education secretary greeted the school’s headteacher, Steve Marsland, like an old friend when she arrived at the Clare Street site. She was given a brief tour of the building and was provided with a quick history lesson about Denton’s connection to the bowler hat.

Lucy Powell joined Mr Marsland and the school’s student council members in putting on a hard hat and hi-vis jacket to officially break ground on the project.

Speaking after putting spades in the ground, the Manchester Central MP said: “There has been fantastic ambition here to rebuild the school, which is long overdue. The head here, Steve Marsland, has pursued this for 15 years and it is fantastic to see it now getting underway. 

“I’ve seen the designs and what is great about it is that it captures local heritage. But also it makes sure they’ve got provision they need for the future – some great nursery, early years and special educational needs – to help the young people of Denton to aspire, achieve and grow.”

She was heaped with praise by Mr Marsland, who has been waiting for this day for around 15 years. The Russell Scott headteacher wants has been fighting to get the new school ever since Carillion left them in a complete mess all those years ago.

He explained that a generation of children in Denton have had to come through primary school with no sports or outdoor facilities because of the botched job. He says the community deserves credit for supporting the school in recent years, despite all the challenges it has faced.

Mr Marsland said: “This is entirely different now. We are talking about Carillion – a company that was fraudulent. They owed millions and millions of pounds all over the world.

“Now the government has brought in safeguards, where when this school was being developed by Carillion, there were no clerks of works and nobody overseeing the works being done. This building was signed off in Coventry where Carillion were based, without even stepping foot on the site. 

“It went to rack and ruin because of it. Now we have two people based on the site, three days a week watching every single stage to make sure it’s being done right.

“New legislation that has been brought in to protect schools like ours that have been ditched in the past. This is a new start and you can see that here and it’s fantastic. It’s going to be a proud day when Lucy comes back to open it.

“Our community has waited so long for this and I just want to credit them. Because they’ve had a reet rough do of it.

“We had to move children all around the show and they were promised a jewel in the crown and they ended up with a mess.”

To avoid placing pupils in temporary classrooms, the new school building will be constructed next to the existing one on the western part of the site. Once the new school is complete, pupils will then transfer across to the facility, allowing the demolition of the former school building to start at the end of the project.

Making sure students didn’t have to move during construction was a key element of the plans. This is due to the turmoil the school children attending have had over the last decade.

The education minister wanted to highlight the benefits of having special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision in-house at the school.  

 Ms Powell said: “We’ve got some big SEND reforms going through at the moment and one of the things coming through really strongly is the parents and families wanting that provision close to home.

“In the past we’ve had to move children far away or transport them further afield and that’s quite unsettling. Families want to have that support in their local area in mainstream schools so it’s great we’re able to include that here.

“We’ll hopefully get the opportunity to do that more in school builds going forward. We need to reform the system because the outcomes aren’t great and the adversarial nature of families trying to get the support they want, then often that support is far away from home.

“Then the outcomes for children aren’t as good as they could be and the cost of it continues to go up. We really think there is a better way of doing this.”

Mr Marsland added: “We’ve had a resource base in this school for the past 20 years, but you don’t necessarily have to build things. It’s great if you can, like this new build is going to incorporate a resource base for up to 20 SEND children. 

“We’ve had one for a long time and it suits mums, dads and children. Children with anxiety, putting them in a taxi and shipping them off somewhere else – they lose valuable time and it’s upsetting for them to be away from their friends and their community. This is the best way forward. 

“It’s costing our borough tens of millions of pounds shipping them out elsewhere where that provision is. And those providers are charging an astronomical fee.”

The new Russell Scott Primary School is expected to be completed in 2028.