Plans submitted for new 620-student Shimna College

8 July 2020

PLANS for Shimna Integrated College’s new £16.5m school in Newcastle have been formally lodged with local planners.

The multi-million pound project will cater for 620 students with the new campus potentially opening in 2023. The new school will be constructed to the east of the current main building at its Lawnfield site at King Street.

The development plan — which is being supported by the Department for Education and Integrated Education Fund — will see students continuing to be educated in the current building while its ultra-modern replacement is constructed at the near 8.5 acre site.

Full planning permission is being sought to demolish the existing school to replace it with a new three-storey building and ancillary accommodation, with associated soft and hard play areas, parking, landscaping and site works.

Included in the ambitious development plan are a range of new sports facilities at nearby Donard Park which we will be shared with the Newcastle community.

Shimna College currently shares its sports halls, grounds and main building with a number of local groups.

Last year, the school celebrated its 25th anniversary with its need for new accommodation one of a number of projects earmarked for financial support in the Fresh Start Agreement.

The integrated college opened in September 1995 with just 60 pupils, but has since grown to become of Northern Ireland’s leading schools.

Shimna’s current school does not meet its needs or the standards specified in the current Department of Education Secondary School handbook.

In February 2014, education officials approved a development proposal to redevelop the integrated college to deliver a modern, post-primary school capable of accommodating the increased demand for integrated education in the area.

Planning papers outline a proposal to build ultra-modern accommodation to the east of the current school, with new sports accommodation extending to the west, encompassing part of the footprint of the existing school.

A new single storey sports suite will extend from the school’s northwestern elevation of the new buildings and includes a hall, gym, fitness area and ancillary accommodation.

The proposed new development has been intentionally designed to allow Shimna College to continua operating during construction work on the new-build.

Phase one will focus on the construction of the main school building, excluding the proposed new sports provision. All of the existing school will be bulldozes when the new-build is complete, apart from the existing sports hall.

This part of the building will only be razed to the ground when work on the school’s new sports facilities have been completed.

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