The appointment of the Inspired Space Consortium by Executive Leader Cllr Roy Oldham in consultation with the council’s BSF Project Board, represents the launch of the new partnership between Tameside Council, Inspired Spaces Consortium and Partnerships for Schools (PfS) to rebuild or renew all the secondary schools in the borough.

Following decision, Cllr Oldham said: “This project represents the best opportunity to invest in our schools in generations. Not only will it transform buildings, it will also enable us to improve the educational attainment for young people, providing them with more opportunities to access education, training and employment. When the programme is complete, Tameside’ secondary schools will be the envy of other cities and towns across the country."

“The level of investment in the first wave - will be followed by every secondary school in Tameside being rebuilt or renewed and demonstrates our determination that we become world class in education: worldclass schools, world-class teachers and worldclass learning facilities. Building Schools for the Future will help deliver just that. It will help us build better and brighter futures for all our young people, and our communities.”

The Inspiredspaces consortium will build and provide building facilities and crucial ICT services. The companies forming the consortium are Carillion, Barclays and Ramseys– who as the ICT provider will deliver nearly £25 million of ICT infrastructure.

Work is due to start in July 2008 at the four schools in phase one of the BSF programme. The sample schools are the new Ashton Academy, Samuel Laycock, Mossley Hollins, and St Damiens. The remaining wave of schools will be delivered in a further phases over the next 3 years.