Bolton secondary school completed

School pupils have moved into the new £14.5m Essa Academy in Bolton designed by Sheppard Robson and built by Kier.

The 89,000 sq ft school, a survivor of the government's Building Schools for the Future programme, caters for 900 students place and is fully occupied. The centre-piece of the building is an official Apple Learning Centre which 'floats' above the reception and main entrance.

Showkat Badat, principal of the Academy, said: "This fantastic building has improved well-being, increased community pride and fostered a happy, calm and business-like atmosphere. This is a building that takes innovation rhetoric into delivered reality."

Rupert Goddard, design director at Sheppard Robson, said: "It has been great to be involved in such an exciting new project and to see the team's visions turned into reality. We have been fortunate to have had an enormously enthusiastic and committed team from Essa, who have inputted into the design from the very start. The academy transforms the image of education locally and provides highly flexible learning spaces'."