Newcastle Great Park Academy opening delayed until 2025

The Great Park development to the north of Newcastle has been hit by numerous issues

The opening of a secondary school on a Tyneside housing development has been delayed until at least 2025 - five years after its initial target date.

School chiefs said the Department for Education had been unable to appoint a contractor for Great Park Academy, on the Newcastle Great Park estate.

Parents were previously told it would open in 2023 after earlier setbacks.

The delay means pupils will continue to be taught in a temporary council-funded building at Gosforth Academy.

In a newsletter, school principal Denise Waugh and chief executive officer Hugh Robinson said the government was "working as quickly as possible to complete the new procurement process" with the aim of starting work in autumn next year once the main contract was awarded.

They now anticipate the building will be ready for pupils in the summer term of the 2024-25 academic year.

The school leaders are seeking funding to increase the pupil capacity at the temporary site in both September 2023 and 2024 as a 60-strong intake joins at Year 5 level.

One parent, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service their child would have been forced to spend several years in temporary accommodation with limited facilities for both learning and extra-curricular activities.

"I know what a good middle school does, what facilities should be available, what the children's experience should be," they said.

"They are not getting that."

Local Liberal Democrat councillor Thom Campion called for parents who applied for their children to attend the academy without being aware of the latest delay to be given another chance to select a school.

Catherine McKinnell, Labour MP for Newcastle North, called the latest delay "deeply frustrating" and called for talks with the government.

She added the setback would "cause huge concern and anxiety for parents" and was "totally unacceptable".

The Department for Education has been approached for comment.

Its construction was previously hit by a prolonged planning battle and complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Newcastle City Council said the delay was "disappointing" but promised it would "provide students with the very highest-quality learning environment" when it finally opens.