The Princess Royal was welcomed by crowds of pupils to the official opening of Campus Whitehaven. The campus opened its doors to pupils in January 2019 but is holding the official opening today. The princess was welcomed to the school by pupils waving flags and presenting her with flowers before she was given a tour of the new facilities as well as being treated to a performance of St Benedict’s School’s recent Rock Challenge piece.
Campus Whitehaven brings together St Benedict’s Catholic High School and Mayfield SEN School into one state-of-the-art, co-located campus. One of the key aspects of the design was to establish the optimum level of integration between the two schools, within the Campus ethos. The new Campus not only improves social interaction of children from all backgrounds, but also facilitates and encourages educational facilities to share ideas, knowledge and resources.
Funding for Whitehaven Campus came from a range of partners including the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Copeland Community Fund, and Cumbria County Council.
Sellafield Ltd invested the first ten million into the project. Jamie Reed, head of corporate affairs, said: “This is the biggest single investment in education in Whitehaven since the 1960s.”