Gorton Education Village

Customer
Gorton Education Village provides a 900 place mainstream high school and a 110 place specialist support school on one campus. The new eight-acre campus features a two storey 100 metre long internal ‘street', a sports hall and community wing. A learning resource centre containing specialist subject zones for science, humanities and English, ICT facilities and a library are also available, along with a medical suite that offers physiotherapy and a hydrotherapy pool. The new campus has been designed with ICT at its core, to allow staff and pupils from two previously separate schools to work more closely together for greater integration. The school has already won an award for it pioneering design, named as the country's best 'healthy-learning environment' in June 2009 by the British Council for School Environments.

The Contract
The £25 Million new-build Gorton Education Village has brought together Cedar Mount High School and Melland Special Education Needs School in Manchester. Gorton Education Village was the first school in the north of England to be built under the government's Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF). The purpose-built facility has now been completed and the first students moved in during June 2008.

Ramesys* was selected as the ICT partner for the Gorton BSF project due to its deep knowledge of the education sector and understanding of the specific requirements of the two schools. Ramesys* designed the ICT systems and software to solve their specific issues and needs, placing ICT at the schools core to deliver a true 21st Century learning environment
 
The two secondary schools, one a school for students with complex and profound special educational needs, are now co-locating on a totally new purpose-built site. Ramesys* worked closely with the two schools to define an ICT solution that would complement and enhance the schools new design.

The ICT solution delivered by the Ramesys* project team was handed over to the operational teams ready for the opening and the Ramesys Managed ICT Service began for a contracted period of four years.

Benefits
The service delivered by Ramesys* as part of the Gorton Education Village managed ICT service will support the cutting-edge new school campus in continuing to ensure that ICT is an integrated part of the education experience for its pupils and staff; providing faster, more robust, secure access to valuable learning tools in a true 21st Century learning environment.
Thanks to the Community wing on campus a whole world of opportunity will also be opened up to the wider Gorton community, as adult learners can also come into the campus after school hours to access learning tools.