Photo Diary: Conversion of our old gym into new Sixth Form facilities 2006-07

Having opened the £1.2 million Sports Hall in January 2006, our focus is now on the creation of a new Sixth Form Centre in the former gymnasium. Currently, students squeeze into two commons rooms and the Centre will maximise space with the installation of a mezzanine floor.

Sixth formers on the student council, Dominic Bonham, Katy Humphrey, Adam Jackson and Becky Howard have been liaising with an interior designer regarding furnishings and hope to create the impression of loft-style living.

Upstairs the mezzanine floor will have computer points as a work area and downstairs there will be pool tables and seating areas to relax and dine with the former girls’ changing room being transformed into a sixth form catering facility.

The cost to transform the gym is around £480,000 and the approximate cost to equip the Centre with furniture and 40 computers will be £21,400.

Trevor Elkington, Director of Sixth Form said: “Our sixth form has grown dramatically in recent years and facilities have just not kept pace with the numerical growth. We now have the opportunity to give some of the most deserving and able young people in Rossendale the facilities they deserve and this leaves me very excited about the future.”

Official Opening Ceremony March 2007

Read Rossendale Free Press article

The old gym and changing rooms were cleared out, in order to make way for new facilities. Steel beams have been put in place in the gym, where an upstairs mezzanine floor is going to be added.

DECEMBER 2006

JANUARY 2007

2ND MARCH 2007

Here you can see that ceilings are being put in, and the area is starting to be decorated and furnished with notice boards, carpets, bannisters, coloured walls & columns.

16TH APRIL 2007

Here you can see that the area has been furnished further, with new carpets and wooden floors.

MAY 2007

Photographs of the completed and furnished centre taken just before school re-opened after the summer holiday break.

AUGUST 2007