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.

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

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.

The competition winners pose for a picture on one of our 'curriculum links' Photo: Sophie Mascoll

In February we welcomed the winners of the ‘The Balfour Beatty Maths Challenge’ where local primary schoolchildren had calculated how many bricks it had taken to build the new academy. The young mathematicians were given a tour of the building and it was a delight to meet such exemplary pupils who represented their primary schools superbly. A sign of things to come!

All hard hat and yellow vests: checking out the new Academy

A highlight of the tour was the fully glazed footbridges on each of the three floors, connecting studios and ‘homebases’. These ‘curriculum links’ as we’ve called them – because they link the different subject areas – are now complete and will act as a showcase for pupils’ work in the future.

All the interior walls have now been painted and flooring is down in most classrooms. There is even a fully-furnished sample classroom for visitors to experience: something like a showhouse in a new housing development.

Over the half term break the teachers we’ve already appointed met to discuss a ‘thematic curriculum’ that will underpin our built environment specialism. We’re investigating ways in which our specialism can be introduced into a number of different subject areas, at the same time making sure the needs of all students will be met across all subjects. We’re getting there!

Of course the 1st of March has been the long-awaited date when Year 6 children find out which high school they have been allocated. We’ll soon hear from the local authority who our 180 ‘pioneers’ will be and I look forward to welcoming them to our new school. We’ll organise orientation sessions for them all as soon as we can, so when they arrive on their first day in September they will already know their way around the academy and their new surroundings will feel familiar. Pupils and their families will be receiving ‘transition’ arrangements as soon as we have all the details.

www.theeastmanchesteracademy.org.uk

Despite the frozen start to 2010, work on site continued at a rapid pace. Only one day was lost when the site had to be called because of the freezing conditions in the first week back after new year.

Inside the academy all the rooms are beginning to look the part and a sample room has been fitted out – not unlike a show house – so visitors can get a real idea of what the completed school will be like. Some of the teachers we have recently appointed will come and do some training in school over the February half-term and they’ll get the chance then to familiarise themselves with all the facilities.

The Balfour Beatty Maths Challenge produced some outstanding entries from primary pupils and a VIP tour will be hosted by the contractors on Friday 12th February for the 11 pupils who correctly calculated that 241,248 bricks were required to build the academy! Well done to all who entered, the response was fantastic.

As we move into February, I’m excited at the prospect of appointing our next cohort of staff and finding out in March which pupils have been allocated a place by the local authority. I have been very impressed with the sense of anticipation amongst the youngsters I’ve met so far this term. As soon as we know who will be the very first pupils at the East Manchester Academy we’ll organise ‘transition’ activities so the new pupils will be as familiar with their new school in September as we are.

Despite Christmas festivities we found time last month to launch the ‘Career Sixth Form’ at Cube in Manchester city centre. I’m delighted that – although we obviously haven’t got any of our own Year 11s yet – 30 or so young people came to see us at the gallery.

The 'Career Sith Form' is launched at Cube in December. Photos: Karen Wright Photography

The Universities of Salford and Manchester were represented as were our sponsors, Bovis Lend Lease and Laing O’Rourke. Aim Higher and Places Matter were there as well as some local architects. It was very encouraging to see so many local young people considering the new East Manchester Academy.

Year 11 students check out the exhibits

The academy model can offer something extra to these post-16 students. Although our sponsors can’t guarantee every school leaver a career, they are obviously looking for the creative, bright young minds of the future and will offer mentoring and job placements to many of our students. Our sixth formers will automatically get much closer to the job market than their contemporaries from other schools and colleges. They will be ahead of the field.

Round table with Guy Hutchence

We’ll only have a small sixth form to start with but we are especially keen on those young people who have a special interest in science, engineering, the built environment, and art and design. The application deadline is later this month and we’ll interview everyone who applies. By the end of next month we should know who has been successful in becoming one of our first Career Sixth Formers.

In March, we’ll also know which of the current Year 6 will be joining us in September. We know we’ll be full and we’re looking forward to providing those 180 pioneers with a first-class educational experience.

One other things I wanted to mention is that, towards the end of last year, Balfour Beatty – the contractors for the academy – ran a competition amongst local primary schools to calculate how many bricks were used in the construction of the building. I can’t say yet who the winners are but I can reveal we had 11 correct answers. Okay, there were some clues: the entrants were told the school’s dimensions, the size of the windows – which of course had to be excluded – and the dimension of a brick. There must be some excellent mathematicians in east Manchester!

The winners will get prizes and a tour of the building by Balfour Beatty and I’ll announce the winners in next month’s blog!

It’s 12 months now since I started as Principal Designate. The time has flown by and we’ve made fantastic progress. But the clock is still ticking and there is still a lot to do. By the end of March we will have recruited all the staff we need for September, so we’re on target and looking forward to an amazing 2010.

East Manchester Academy website

The Academy 'blocks' are linked with impressive footbridges

It’s the end of November and it seems no time at all since I wrote the October blog! It’s been another busy month where I have been attending more design meetings on site and recruiting new Academy staff.

I am delighted to report we have appointed some excellent staff so far for English, maths, science and modern foreign languages. We’ve also recruited a second Vice Principal – Jane Clewlow – who will be heading the Teaching and Learning Team and will join us next May. She’ll also be assisting with appointing other key staff members in the Spring.

The glass atrium is now complete

As these pictures show, the school itself is cracking on apace. The glass atrium facing Grey Mare Lane is now complete which means the contractors can continue with the library and Academy interiors.

We have also been making further plans for the Career Sixth Form which will see over-16 students utilising the top floor of the Academy from September next year. Only a limited number of students will join us each year which will mean we can personalise a learning programme to suit each student.

The new Beswick Library will be here

We are holding a special event at Cube gallery on Thursday, 10th December (5.00-7.30pm) where we hope to meet prospective sixth form students and their parents. On the evening – which has been organised by our sponsors – representatives from local universities will be on hand to discuss the opportunities on offer.

All this as well as dropping off newsletters to primary schools across the area has kept us busy, and the next few weeks up to Christmas look hectic too. I must take this opportunity to wish every reader a very Happy Christmas and I hope 2010 is everything you wish it to be!

Bright colours in each classroom

Check out our new website for all the latest information on the East Manchester Academy