New school plan set to be passed

IT WOULD INVOLVE SECONDARY AND JUNIOR SCHOOL REBUILT

- By EDDIE BISKNELL

PLANS to rebuild a secondary school and a junior school are set to be given the green light.

South Derbyshire District Council is recommended to approve a scheme to rebuild Mercia Academy and Newhall Junior School, which sit opposite each other in Sunnyside and Chesterfield Avenue, Newhall.

The project, submitted on behalf of the Department for Education, would see the current ageing and outdated facilities demolished and replaced.

This comes after Mercia Academy had to be evacuated in November 2023 when structural issues within the building were identified. It's 588 pupils were taught at various other locations for months.

Lionheart Educational Trust, which runs both schools, will oversee the regeneration and is currently teaching Mercia Academy pupils in an extensive series of flatpack temporary buildings constructed last September.