Financial Close has been reached on the multi million pound Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme which will revolutionise education in Nottingham by introducing cutting edge technology to classroom and creating 21st century buildings.

Nottingham City Council has reached an important milestone in their plans to transform secondary schools in Nottingham under the BSF programme by signing of legal contracts worth £90 million with inspiredspaces and Building Schools for the Future Investments (BSFI), to form the Local Education Partnership (LEP).

This follows months of negotiations after inspiredspaces was unveiled as the Council’s Private Sector Partner for the LEP in January 2008. The inspiredspaces consortium includes Carillion as a construction and support services partner and Ramesys as the ICT managed service provider.

Councillor David Mellen, Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio holder for Children’s Services, said: “Reaching financial close is an important milestone and means that construction work on this pioneering programme will begin soon. The initiative is gathering real momentum and we will continue to work closely with the whole school community throughout the construction programme. We are looking forward to working with inspiredspaces to transform the school experience for children and young people across the city.”

Carillion chief executive, John McDonough, said: “We are delighted to have achieved financial close on our second project under the BSF programme, which is a strong growth area for the Group. We have built an excellent partnership with Nottingham City Council and now look forward to helping them deliver their education vision of sustainable and state-of-the-art community focused schools.”

Tim Byles, Chief Executive of Partnership for Schools, the government agency responsible for delivering the BSF programme nationwide, said: "This is excellent news for young people, teachers and the wider local communities in Nottingham. At its heart, BSF is about transforming education and improving the life chances for all young people, and I look forward to charting the progress of the Nottingham scheme, in particular the innovative campus approach with a new SEN school co-located with a completely remodelled secondary school.”

The LEP will build eight schools in Wave 2 of the Government's BSF programme. The first phase of Wave 2 includes:

• a new secondary school in the north of the city for Big Wood in Top Valley
• the remodelling and complete refurbishment of Hadden Park High School in Bilborough
• a new special school (Centre of Excellence) on the integrated Harvey Hadden Campus to replace Aspley Wood and Shepherd Schools

Building work is on track to start this summer with opening planned for Autumn 2009. Work should be fully completed in 2010. The remaining five schools in Wave 2 are due to be complete by 2010/11.

To find out more visit www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/bsf.