Education and Skills
LTGDC has committed 5% of its capital programme to improving facilities in local schools by supporting Building School for the Future programmes. At the new Rokeby School in Canning Town which is presently under construction for opening in 2010 LTGDC has funded an enlarged sports hall and additional health and enterprise facilities for students and the community. A second project at St Paul's Way School, Bromley by Bow, to deliver improved attainment and skills in science, is also agreed and under construction. Allied to the building programme LTGDC has made £1.5m available over 3 years to help drive improvements in students' academic standards, aspirations and employability.
Plans to radically improve night time education in east London by creating a new campus for Birkbeck College, University of London in Stratford are taking shape. A proposition for an 8,500 square metre, £33m building located within Stratford's Cultural Quarter delivering higher and further education programmes and rehearsal space for both the Theatre Royal Stratford East and Stratford Circus has been agreed. A successful funding application to HEFCE this year is the next stage before seeing the new centre open in 2012.
LTGDC is linking improved education provisions with the revival of Rainham Village. LTGDC has agreed to sell a large part of the former Carpetright site to Havering College to be the base for their new construction skills campus. The remainder of the site will be used for housing development. Whilst plans are developed for this major new scheme, Havering College has leased one of the existing buildings on site and is in the process of refurbishing it for a building trades centre to open in autumn 2009.
