Six Integrated schools will soon have broken ground at the start of 2023.
The 2014 Stormont House Agreement led to the creation of the Fresh Start Agreement. The Fresh Start Agreement committed the UK Government to provide up to £500 million over 10 years of new capital funding to support shared and Integrated Education.
Heather Watson with pupils from Phoenix IPS with plans for their new school.
Six Integrated schools will soon have broken ground at the start of 2023:
One of the schools benefiting from the Fresh Start funding is Slemish Integrated College in Ballymena.
Principal Mark Weir commented:
‘We are really thrilled at the prospect of our long awaited new school. We believe the new buildings and facilities represent great news for both Slemish College students and the Wider Community.
Since our foundation in 1996, we have grown from a school of 80 students (in just two mobile classroom blocks, still in use today), to today’s thriving learning community of 979 students. Throughout those 26 years, the students of Slemish College have been educated in a growing collection of temporary classrooms, many of which are long beyond their expected period of use. The College has had very limited indoor sporting facilities and every usable space has been employed. The temporary buildings that make up Slemish College have been consistently expensive to heat and maintain. The new campus will be a wonderful investment in the young people of Ballymena and beyond, who will come to Slemish College, both now and in the future.
Slemish is a popular learning community that is religiously balanced and diverse. It is a school that offers both Grammar and All Ability education and is one that continues to be oversubscribed, serving all of Ballymena and Mid Antrim. For all those reason, Slemish, and it’s state of the art campus, will truly be for all young people.’
We look forward to watching the development of these important and much-needed school facilities during the coming months.
Education Permanent Secretary Dr Mark Browne, Principal Anne Anderson and contractors cutting the first sod to officially mark the beginning of construction works at New-Bridge Integrated College.
