Greenhead Grammar School has been chosen as one of the first schools in the country to pioneer a new hi-tech approach to teaching.

The Keighley school has been chosen by the government as the location for one of only two new £1 million City Learning Centres in the Bradford district.

The new purpose-built learning centre - scheduled to open in September 2000 - will include state-of-the-art computer learning facilities, a cyber cafe and a careers centre which will stay open all day long.

Students will also have the opportunity to take lap-top computers home. That will let them access information and send in homework for checking, all at the touch of a button.

The massive new learning resource will also be made available to primary and secondary schools in Keighley and Ilkley. They will be able to link up electronically to the new facility.

Jubilant head-teacher Miles Mizon says: "We are absolutely delighted about the announcement and excited about the opportunities it will provide us with. It will be a facility for the school and for its many partners including its feeder primary schools as well as Holy Family, Parkside and Ilkley secondary schools, which will be able to share the learning materials with us.

"The centre will also be there to promote closer links bet-ween local businesses and the school, which is something we have been keen to develop. It will be open all day long from eight till late and during the holidays, so the facilities are open for children and students to come in and support their study. What we hope to do in the future is to provide pupils with access to curriculum material via cable links, so they can access the study information from their homes."

Mr Mizon says that £700,000 will be used to set up the project in the first year, with half of that figure going towards the construction of the new centre and the other half towards equipping it. The £300,000 left over will be used to cover the running costs of the centre for the following two years, which will involve the hiring of a centre manager and support staff.

As well as a new building, the school proposes to adapt its existing IT Comm suite, which was opened earlier this year.

Once the plans for the new centre have been drafted they have to be submitted to the Department for Education and Employment for approval. If the plans are approved Mr Mizon hopes construction will start early in the new year.

School governor Khadim Hussain says: "For Greenhead Grammar School and Keighley it is a massive boost and highlights the confidence which the local education authority has in the people of Keighley. It also demonstrates the confidence which the government has in the school and its management committee."

Greenhead will pioneer the scheme alongside 30 other schools across the nation, including Carlton Bolling College in Bradford.

The chairman of Bradford council's education committee Cllr Susanne Rooney has also hailed Greenhead's achievement. She says: "This is further excellent news, not only for pupils at Greenhead but also for children at other local schools who will be able to link into this hi-tech way of learning. Bradford is also one of six areas in the country to pilot the National Grid for Learning, a scheme to link all schools to the Internet to aid learning - and I'm sure this helped our bid."

One decision the school must now take is whether or not to apply for technology-college status, which it has tried for unsuccessfully on previous occasions.

Mr Mizon says: "We have been invited to put in a bid for technology status for March 2001 but at the moment we are keeping our options open."

He adds that the school will concentrate on starting up the City Learning Centre before deciding whether or not to lodge a bid.

Opinion, page 10

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