Work to start at last on new school

A NEW secondary school for inner city Bristol will be built, and the headteacher is 'hopeful' building work will start in the next few weeks. However, the day when the first pupils walk through its doors looks certain to be delayed yet again.

- Tristan CORK

The headteacher of Oasis Temple Quarter has said he 'understands and shares the frustration' of parents whose children may well have left school by the time it opens.

No work has yet begun on the site of Oasis Temple Quarter, which is planned to be built between Silverthorne Lane and the Feeder Canal in St Phillips. Next door, a huge new complex of student flats has risen above the St Phillips Causeway flyover in the past few months, with students there scheduled to move in for the start of the 2026 academic year when the University of Bristol's new Temple Quarter campus is due to open.

But issues with the banks of the canal and the site as a whole have held back the start of work on the new secondary school and it faces being delayed yet again. So much that the 'demographic bulge' in student numbers, that sparked a huge campaign to get a new school for inner city East Bristol back in the 2010s and early 2020s, will have passed and there is speculation the school won't ever be built.

Richard James, the headteacher at Oasis Academy Temple Quarter, said the academy trust chain is 'working closely' with the Department of Education and this week he confirmed to Bristol Live that the school will go ahead.

The school opened in 2023 for Year 7 pupils on a temporary shared school site in South Bristol before moving after a term to a second temporary site at Spring Street in Bedminster, where it has been now for the past year and a half. That has been steadily expanding as the next year joined in Year 7, but the lack of action over in St Phillips means the school will stay south of the river for the foreseeable future.

"We understand and share the frustration felt by many of our community regarding delays to the development of our permanent school site," said Mr James. "Oasis Academy Temple Quarter remains fully committed to providing a safe and high-quality learning environment for our students at our Spring Street site.