EdVenture Notre Dame College A £100m

Artists impression of EdVenture Notre Dame College A £100m rescue plan to save secondary school education has been unveiled by Liverpool City Council in a bid to pioneer a new learning experience.

Leader Joe Anderson and business figures, including Liverpool Vision's Max Steinberg, have been working on a strategy that has taken inspiration from the pioneering EdVenture School in Mumbai, India.

An EdVenture School is an “interchangeable shell” that can be modified to suit learning and house other facilities within it like sports and health centres, or even indoor markets.

After the government scrapped the £350m Building Schools for the Future scheme (BSF) last year, the taskforce has been developing the new strategy to rebuild or refurbish more than 30 schools in Liverpool.

The ambitious phase one of the new plans will cost in the region of £100m and could deliver up to 10 new schools between 2012 and 2015.

Three of those will be EdVenture - Archbishop Beck Catholic High School in Walton, St John Bosco College in Croxteth and Notre Dame College in Everton Valley.

The Council also plans to rebuild Holly Lodge in West Derby and co-habit St Julies Catholic Girls School with St Francis Xavier’s College and Archbishop Blanch with St Hilda’s C of E School by 2016.

“Within the shell there can be more than just a school, there can be a health centre or an indoor market. We might even be able to include a new library.

“But I could also go outside the school but within the shell and see many different things going on and learn about the way people work too.”

Council leader Joe Anderson said: “When the government axed our BSF programme we were determined to find an alternative way forward to make sure our youngster’s get the best start in life.

“We believe that by working with all of the possible partners such as schools, the Dioceses and private developers, together with the sale of sites we can deliver Phase One of the programme.

“However, if we want to complete Phase Two as well we will need financial assistance from the government so we will be doing all we can to convince the Department of Education that it deserves a contribution from Whitehall.”

Max Steinberg, co-chair of the BSF Task Force, said: “We have tried to ensure that proposals would be built around delivering educational excellence and improving the city’s economic prosperity, rather than a simplistic response to the funding reductions.

“We have adopted a positive and practical approach to the issue and I am pleased the city council is now in a position to move forward.”

Phase Two, where the council will look at full government and private funding, will begin after 2015 for Bellerive FCJ Catholic College, St Margaret’s C of E High School, Aigburth High, Clifford Holroyde Centre of Expertise and The Bluecoat.