First day for the East Manchester Academy 'pioneers'.

The first new pupils cross the threshold before 7.30 on Monday morning to be greeted personally by their Principal, Guy Hutchence.

It’s been a long time coming. Some say a school here has been needed for a generation or two, but now 203 nervous 11-year-olds step into the spacious foyer, shake their headteacher’s hand and are ushered to the canteen to enjoy a free breakfast before assembly.

The significance of this particular start of term is not lost on the local media with TV crews and press photographers documenting Mr Hutchence’s first ever address to his new cohort while local dignitaries, sponsors and regeneration chiefs look on.

Mr Hutchence calls them the ‘pioneers’: the first ever pupils at the new school and, he reminds them, as they will always be the oldest group as the school fills, they will be setting the standard for others to follow.

It’s a big occasion and each of the new intake solemnly take in the message before being escorted to their classrooms by their form teachers.

The morning is non-stop activity: after being issued with planners and timetables each of the forms is given a tour of the school. There’s the indoor sports hall and outdoor all-weather pitches to take in; the dance and drama space; the music technology room and a ‘learning resource centre’ overflowing with Apple Mac computers. These brand new facilities, designed for a full school of 900 pupils, will be at the exclusive disposal – for one year at least – of these fortunate Year 7 students. And then there’s the new public library which shares the building and which will be open when the school is not.

Before lunch there’s a class photograph – one of the reasons I am there – a fire drill and a number of ‘getting to know you’ activities in their form groups. Any nervousness has passed for most by the time pasta and chili are served from the new kitchen. The all-weather pitch is quickly populated and the children explore their new playground.

By the afternoon the new timetable is in full swing and the eager students get their first lessons in RE, history, art, maths, science and music technology.

There’s another assembly before home time and a congratulatory message from Mr Hutchence: it’s been a good first day, the pupils have been patient when things didn’t always go quite to plan and their attitude and behaviour has been first-class.

Outside on the plaza, parents and carers wait patiently to hear about their children’s first day at ‘big school’ and, as the beaming ‘pioneers’ stream out to be re-united, there’s no doubt it’s been a great success.

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Now, it seems, its the turn of east Manchester. There are neighbourhoods I haven’t visited for several weeks that are now almost unrecognisable. New public buildings are preparing to open; construction sites are crawling with yellow-vested works and dumper trucks; there’s a buzz about the place which seems at odds with economic forecasts.

For this ‘back to school’ progress report, I’ve included some highlights from a whistle-stop photographic tour of east Manchester.

This is the East Manchester Academy, whose progress East has been following for the past 18 months. On Monday it opens its doors to 203 Year 7 pupils, the first cohort of a long-awaited secondary school for the area. The Academy’s Principal, Guy Hutchence, calls them the ‘pioneers’, the ones who will set the standard for the years to come. Check out East next week where we will feature the historic first day of the Academy. Beswick Library shares the same building and opens to the public a week later on the 13th.

Over in Miles Platting this is the brand new Park View Community School which moves from its Victorian building on Nelson Street to its new home on Varley Street.

Up Oldham Road the Greater Manchester Police 240,000 sq ft Force Headquarters is nearing completion at Central Park. The steel frame in the background is the £35 million Divisional Headquarters which, when complete in 2011, will house those officers currently stationed in Beswick at Grey Mare Lane.

Across east Manchester the most visible construction activity is the laying of the Metrolink tracks that will take trams from the city centre to Droylsden. This Phase 3 extension work sees trams running along the main roads, as well as through new tunnels and across new bridges, taking in New Islington, Holt Town and Sportcity.

Here’s the beginnings of the £24 million BMX Centre, part of the National Cycling Centre. Built right alongside the Manchester Velodrome, it will eventually seat 2000 spectators and become the home of the British Cycling Federation.

Some of the biggest changes in east Manchester are currently happening in Openshaw. Morrisons will be the cornerstone in a £40 million retail development including other stores, offices, a car park for nearly 700 cars and a new piece of public art. This week hundreds of local people are being interviewed for positions at the store.

Further down Ashton Old Road, yet another housing development is progressing to fulfill the ambition of more new homes in east Manchester. This is The Key, a development of houses and apartments for sale or shared ownership. Visit www.thekeyeastmanchester.co.uk.

Cornflakes spill out of a paddling pool; red paint is splattered with rollers and toothbrushes; pasta is shovelled out of a plastic tub with wooden spoons. It sounds like a parent’s worst nightmare but this is the weekly Wonderful World of Play at Clayton Sure Start Children’s Centre and the kids love it.

“For the children it’s all about getting messy, interacting with others and learning through play,” explains Amanda Shore, the Children’s Centre Teacher. “For the adults it’s an opportunity to meet other parents and get informal advice from half a dozen health-related agencies and for us it’s a chance to demonstrate how children can learn from play without expensive toys.”

Kayleigh Smith and her 19 month-old son, Cole have travelled this morning from Ancoats. “Yes, we have to get a bus to be here but it’s worth the effort because he enjoys being with other children and getting messy. He doesn’t get much chance of that at home.”

“I’ve put our pans in a low cupboard in our kitchen,” says Carla Stevens, mother of three year-old Roman. “It means he can just take them out whenever he wants and it keeps him busy whilst I’m cooking.”

Carla has been coming to the Wonderful World of Play since Roman was a baby and isn’t about to stop any time soon. With her five day-old daughter in her arms she has many more sessions ahead of her. “I was here last week, heavily pregnant,” she explains, “gave birth over the weekend and am back again now. I haven’t missed a week!”

"My daughter was born on Sunday and I'm back here today...

Whilst their children are covering themselves in paint and foam the parents and carers get informal advice from different agencies who join in each week.

“We have health workers, speech and language therapists, dental nurses – a string of specialists who might not be consulted formally but who become part of the play session and ‘filter’ information in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere,” says Amanda.

When the dental nurse pays a visit there are toothbrushes in the paint pots and minty-smelly ‘goo’ to play with. When the fire service comes, not only do the children get to try on the helmets but the parents learn they can get their fire alarms tested for free.

“For an a hour and a half the adults get to ask questions of the specialist but also chat to each other,” continues Amanda. “This social interaction is crucial for many new mums.”

“Before having Liam I’d always worked full-time,” says Clayton resident, Claire Tomkison, “so it was a real shock to finish work and start maternity leave. I felt quite lonely and isolated and the weeks seem to drag on forever. I came down here to see what was going on and just started getting to know people. Once Liam arrived I signed up for every course going. I don’t know what I’d have done without the Children’s Centre.

“Some baby and toddler sessions are quite structured but here you get to talk to other mums and I always find it interesting to see what Liam gets up to when he’s playing with the friends he’s made. It just shows that you don’t need expensive toys… our children will learn from anything.”

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The Wonderful World of Play is on Fridays between 10 and 11.30. Phone 219 6177 or call in for more information.
Clayton Sure Start Children’s Centre, North Road, Clayton.

Revisit East in the next week for more about the Children’s Centre.

It’s a delight showing visitors around our new academy as everyone is amazed how light and spacious the building is and how colourful too. All the internal paintwork is now complete and the classrooms are fitted out, ready to go.

The external spaces have all now been cleared of building material and landscaped and so the playground, amphitheatre and the plaza adjacent to Grey Mare Lane all look stunning.

The all-weather pitch has been christened with a series of football challenges that could have matched anything we’ve seen from South Africa recently! The Academy contractors, Balfour Beatty took on staff from New East Manchester, the architects Walker Simpson and sponsors, Laing O’Rourke and Bovis Lend Lease in a series of hard-fought games in aid of charity. Everyone was delighted with the playing surface, if not with their own team’s performance! I have no doubt this pitch will be well used not only by our own pupils but by sports enthusiasts throughout east Manchester.

The end of the summer term is traditionally when the transition programme starts: preparing Year 6 primary school pupils for the move to ‘big school’. Of course, we’re unable to do this on site this year so we’ve been having our ‘new intake days’ at nearby Sportcity. Our pupils have been making new friends as well as being put through their paces by sports coaches over an intense series of exercises. Everyone’s had great fun! In the evenings of each of the two days, parents and carers have come along to hear about everything from the school uniform to timetables, and from school dinners to library opening hours. I thank everyone who attended for their support and enthusiasm.

As we come to the summer break for pupils this will be the last of my blogs which started way back in January 2009. They have followed the building of the Academy and all the behind-the-scenes preparations that are involved in opening a brand new school. Come back in September when East will be featuring photographs from our opening week at the East Manchester Academy and Beswick Library.

See the East Manchester Academy website here

Ben Lear: "Growing and cooking our own food... these are skills we could lose."

Ben’s new job seems easy enough: encourage local people to start growing their own food. On a sunny day in June with the first pea pods appearing in the EMERGE teaching garden, it is surely an idyllic task.

But, even with the increasing popularity of growing your own, the odds are stacked against him. On the main road opposite the newly created garden the construction of two new fast food outlets highlights our preference for instant, unhealthy food. Many of the lorries driving into the New Smithfield Market – where EMERGE are based – bring more fruit and vegetables from around the world and, says Ben, serve as a constant reminder of the importance of locally grown food.

Food containers, tyres... you can grow food in anything

Since arriving in April Ben has coordinated the construction of EMERGE’s teaching garden. There are now raised vegetable plots with courgettes, squash, leeks, spinach and lettuce all making a tentative appearance. Discarded tyres act as pots for potatoes; specially bred worms munch their way through food waste to make ‘the very best compost’, and a large ‘poly tunnel’ has been built as a classroom for Ben’s new project.

“We’re starting a four week course here on July 8th,” he says. “It’s aimed specifically at beginners to give people the confidence to start growing their own food. We’ll start by talking about soils; how to plant things and how to water them; which containers to use. Maybe later we’ll talk a little about garden design and crop rotation but we’ll see how we get on.”

Ben has already set up a Saturday gardening drop-in club down at the wholesale market. “There’s lots to do here and I’m hopeful local people will just pop along and get involved. We’ve built some beds but need more and there’s always lots of maintenance needed at this time of year.”

Keen to take his project out to the community, Ben has already forged linked with some local groups. “With the African Francophone Integration Project in Beswick we are creating a community garden and we might even try and grow some native African vegetables. But I’d like to hear from other groups or individuals who have a plot, however small, that they’d like to cultivate.”

Ben’s job at EMERGE – the social enterprise that spearheaded recycling in Manchester long before it become mainstream – is funded by the Manchester Carbon Innovation Fund. Manchester City Council has invested £1 million in local projects that tackle climate change.

Trucks bringing fruit and veg from around the world are a constant reminder

There are beehives in urban allotments, ‘green roofs’ on community buildings and, in the Northern Quarter, the first ‘smart energy business district’ where offices and homes can monitor and reduce their energy use.

“Following the Growing Foods Project we hoping to open a cookery centre here,” says Ben, “it’s the logical next step after you’ve grown your own local, nutritious food. My granddad is a great gardener and my grandma is a great cook and it’s those skills that we are in danger of losing.”

Like to know more about growing your own food?
Contact Ben Lear at EMERGE on 0161 223 8200 or ben@emergemanchester.co.uk

See EMERGE’s website
Read more about the Manchester Carbon Innovation Fund

Jane Clewlow: "I'm looking forward to September."

So which school have you just moved from?
I’ve been at Salford City Academy since 2006 as Vice Principal responsible for the 14-19 curriculum. It’s been my job to set up a new sixth form from scratch. We converted an old shell of a building into a thriving sixth form with, amongst other things, its own hair and beauty salon and construction skills centre.

Before Salford I worked as an Assistant Vice Principal at the newly-created City of London Academy in Bermondsey. It was so new that for the first two years we didn’t even have a school building but taught the children in ‘Portakabins’. It was only when the first intake reached Year 9 that we moved into our brand new school. That was an amazing experience.

What attracted you to the East Manchester Academy?
After London I never thought I’d have the opportunity to start in a brand new school again. But here it is: the chance to influence things right from the start. If you move to an existing school the systems and procedures are already in place, so it takes time to make positive changes. At the East Manchester Academy we can start from scratch and continually look at the Academy from the pupils’ perspective, always asking, ‘What will be best for our pupils?’

The school will start with just one year group. What challenges will that bring?
Unlike established high schools where the Year 7 pupils are the youngest, our Year 7s will be the oldest year group as they progress through the school.  Apart from our sixth form students, they won’t have big year groups above them to look up to, no-one to show them how things are done. They’ll be the ones that set the tone for the rest of the school which will be a challenging responsibility for them.

Won’t it feel a bit empty with only 180 pupils rattling around?
Not at all. The Year 7s will have their own ‘home base’ and certain sections of the school will be off limits. We want to make it feel small, safe and secure for them from day one.

What are you most looking forward to?
Oh, meeting the pupils and getting back into the school routine! Although I’m still going back to Salford once a week to teach my A-level students, I miss having the children around and find it very strange working in an office environment. I can’t wait for September!

When did you know teaching was for you?
My love of English came first. It was my reception teacher, Mrs Warburton, who, when I was just five years old, recognised that I had a particular aptitude for the subject. By the time I was 16 or 17 I had a real passion for English and also loved working with young people so the two came together in teaching. I studied English Literature at Lancaster University and completed my teaching training in Manchester before taking up my first post near Warrington in 2000.

And the satisfaction?
There’s satisfaction every day but now that I’ve been teaching for nearly 10 years it’s also wonderful to hear from ex-pupils. I’m in regular contact with a number who have gone on to achieve successes in a multitude of fields: some run their own businesses whilst others are representing our country in Afghanistan.

One of the pupils from the original intake at The City of London Academy got in touch with me recently; he thanked me for the impact I’d had on his early school career. He told me how he now runs three businesses, is a local politician and is about to go to university to read politics. For him to attribute some of his success to me is incredibly humbling. To know you have inspired a young person to go on to achieve great things is what teaching is all about.

I know that all of the pupils who start with us in September will go on to achieve great success and I’m looking forward to be being part of the team that helps them achieve that.

See the East Manchester Academy website here

We have just one more member of the teaching staff to recruit before we have a full complement, all ready for September. Whenever possible our new teachers have been coming together after full days at their current schools to prepare teaching plans for the new academy. They are a dedicated team already!

I’m delighted to announce we now have our second Vice Principal – Jane Clewlow – who is with us for most of each week and we’ve also appointed a Corporate Services Director and Manager. To make sure our catering operation is up and running from day one we’ve already recruited a Catering Manager who will start with us in June… so the team is building week by week.

From September we’ll have 16 teaching staff to cover all of the curriculum areas for our 180 Year 7 pupils and, as we take on more students each year, the staff room will become progressively more full with 60 teachers when we are fully open.

I must thank Sportcity for offering to host our transition days later on this summer term. Normally we’d welcome our new students to the school but, as we haven’t got a completed building yet – and short of issuing 180 hard hats – we have to stage our transition days elsewhere. So, over two days at the City of Manchester Stadium, we’ll be welcoming our pioneering students and, in the evenings, their parents and carers. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone then.

On site, the classrooms are looking good and outside the all-weather pitch is nearly complete. Standing on it now, it really is impressive and I can visualise not only our own PE teachers taking full advantage but also coaches from Manchester City FC who will be our guests from time to time.

Local sports groups have already been enquiring about using the state-of-the-art pitch and of course it will just one of our many facilities – including the indoor sports hall, the dance studio and the lecture theatre – that local groups can hire in the evenings and at weekends. With the library open outside school hours the school building will be in use right through the week and throughout the year. A school right at the heart of our community.

I must say I can’t wait for the school to open as I’m looking forward to running a school again!

March has been a particularly busy time for us as we now know who our 180 ‘pioneers’ will be for the opening of the new Academy in September. After the half term break we will be organising transition days so our new pupils can familiarise themselves with the new school uniform, the calendar and the timetable. We’ll also be offering tours around the school but, until then, here’s a taster of where we are up to on site.

Click on any one of these thumbnails to get started.

Clayton Hall: once home to the Byron family and the Chetham brothers

East Manchester continues to amaze me. The diversity of what goes on here and the commitment of local people is astonishing. This last week I found myself taking photographs in Clayton Hall, the 16th century ‘moated’ hall concealed in the middle of the unassuming Clayton Park. Each of four rooms are now decked out in the late Victorian style to give visitors a real taste of history in east Manchester’s most notable historic building.

Come and see the sunken cold store, dining room, kitchen and outside wash house

Yes, I’ve seen this sort of thing before in National Trust properties and in museums run by local councils. But here in Clayton – with the trams lines being re-laid outside on Ashton New Road – this piece of historical restoration has not been put on by a team of full-time curators but by local volunteers from the Friends of Clayton Park.

Over the last couple of years these dedicated volunteers have sympathetically renovated four previously empty rooms into what is now a cultural high spot and an invaluable learning resource for local schools.

Small grants have paid for some of the items – the kitchen range was bought from ebay – but others have been donated by friends and relatives and, since the displays have been open to the public, from visitors supportive of the Friends’ work.

Experience a Victorian kitchen: no fridge or microwave here!

The Grade 2 listed hall is open to the public every third Saturday of the month between 1–4pm (so that’s this Saturday, 20th March) and children are particularly welcome. There’s an ID quiz so youngsters can identify items in each room and plenty of hands-on activities from helping out in the kitchen to ‘ironing’ clothes in the wash house.

As a backdrop to the National Curriculum the Friends are keen to encourage more schools to book visits and use the hall as a teaching resource.

To contact the Friends email info@friendsofclaytonpark.org.uk or ring Manchester Leisure on 0161 231 3090.

The Friends of Clayton Park website

I feel I’m witnessing the beginning of something special. Today Gorton people are coming together to celebrate the start of a motivational programme for young people and their families. I arrive at the indoor market in time to see dozens of young people being issued with clipboards and I LOVE GORTON T-shirts before being briefed

Clipboards at the ready

by Ruth Ibegbuna from Urbis, the programme co-ordinator for the ‘Gorton People Stronger Together’ programme. “Tell people about the money,” she says to volunteers, “and ask them what they’d like us to spend it on. Then invite them along to the Monastery for an afternoon of fun and entertainment.” (Not to mention the free food supplied by the Gorton Market traders).

The volunteers are split into teams, each given an area to canvas in the next couple of hours. “I’ll do the estate,” says one teenager who might expect to be still under the covers at this time on a Saturday morning. “I know it well, so I’ll get some good responses.”

We all love Gorton!

I follow the four-strong team heading for Hyde Road and Tesco and overhear enthusiasm (and occasional apathy) from their respondents towards the news that Gorton has won £450,000 from the central government’s Inspiring Communities programme.

Today is billed as ‘Gorton’s biggest ever community consultation’ and, as the completed questionnaires come rolling back to base at the market, it seems that plenty of people have a view on how the ‘win’ should be spent.

But this project is not starting from scratch. Already the Urbis team have run hugely-successful ‘Reclaim’ mentoring schemes for young people in Moss Side, east Bolton and north Manchester. (See http://www.reclaimproject.org.uk). The ‘Stronger Together’ programme will build on and extend the theme taking a wider approach by supporting young people as well as their families.

Plans already include Saturday classes for 11–14 year-olds (more early mornings!); a project to renovate unsafe open spaces, adding lighting, greenery and public art; and a Reclaim mentoring project for Gorton girls (the last one was just for young men).

Down at Gorton Monastery preparations are well in hand for the afternoon event. As the Bloco Nova samba band and dancers arrive, I set up a small studio near the café where I am to photograph local people soon to appear on posters and banners promoting ‘Gorton People Stronger Together’. Local MP, Gerald Kaufman is one of the first to arrive and, although he’s unlikely to appear on a banner, he is more than happy to pose in his Gorton T-shirt with some of his younger constituents.

The afternoon flies by. The word has got out that the photography sessions are informal and fun and soon there is a queue out the door. Young and old are captured and I even persuade the camera-shy to take a turn. Some of the pictures appear here but more will adorn Gorton in the coming months.

Before I know it, and with nearly 1000 images on my memory card, the event is over and I hear later about Gorton Visual Arts and their print-making workshop; the manifesto-writing and the young people getting up there on the ‘Gorton Plinth’ telling everyone about their achievements and aspirations. I don’t need to be told about the samba band because I heard their mesmeric beat down the corridor!

To get involved in Gorton’s exciting new project email inspiringcommunities@urbis.org.uk or call 0161 605 8218.