Ground breaking for new high school

Pupils clad in reflective jackets and hard hats were given spades to dig the first sods at the Gunters Lane site.

They were joined by school principal Mike Conn, East Sussex County Council chairman Cllr Bob Lacey and a host of other dignitaries.

The project was granted planning permission in September and it is hoped building work will be finished by Autumn 2010.

Working in partnership with the school, East Sussex County Council will build the new school and Skill Centre. The bulk of the funding is coming from the Government's Building Schools for the Future programme but 4m is being invested from the council's own funds.

The state-of-the-art building will feature a range of learning zones that can be used for more than one purpose and support a range of teaching and learning approaches.

They will be arranged around a large, open central heart.

The building will include several sustainable technologies to help reduce its carbon footprint compared to other schools built in recent years. It will operate an extended day and students will be able to follow a wide range of academic and vocational courses.

The school will also incorporate the latest ICT equipment and each student should have their own hand-held machine or laptop to work on.

Students will be helped and encouraged to research online and become independent learners making progress with help from teachers and other support staff.

Work to the surrounding roads has also been agreed, including a toucan crossing on Gunters Lane, improvements to bus stops and pavements and traffic counts at key locations.

It is proposed to build a Skills Centre on the vacant Down Road site for pupils aged 13 to 16, with facilities for engineering, hairdressing, construction and catering.

After the ceremony, Mike Conn said: "I am just ecstatic it has finally happened. After all the planning, the debates and consultation it's finally here and we are off.

"It was important the children did it because it is their project and they will be sending their children to the school."

Bexhill High chairman of governors Brian Kentfield said: "It has been a long time coming but we have at last got this far. It will be a really exciting time when we can see it coming out of the ground and some of the pupils who were on site will get to see it finished.

"It has been designed for the school, by the school and will help achieve the best education in East Sussex and the country."