Wates Construction has completed developing the £72,300 sq ft Edgar Wood Academy in Greater Manchester, marking the culmination of a two-year project on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE).

The multi-million-pound Edgar Wood Academy is located on Rochdale Road, Middleton. Designed by architect Sheppard Robson, the school has the capacity to hold 900 pupils aged between 11 and 16 years old. It features 23 general classrooms and 34 specialist classrooms across three floors, as well as a sports hall, sports pitches, and soft and hard play areas. It is being operated by the Altus Education Partnership, a charitable institution and registered company.


The school's first cohort of 120 Year 7 students started last September. They were based at purpose-built temporary accommodation at Hopwood Hall College, around three miles away from the Edgar Wood Academy site. Those and future students will be based at the completed school from this month (September).

Wates secured the work through the DfE's £3bn Modern Methods of Construction Framework, to which it was appointed in January 2020. The framework is part of a wider government move towards adopting innovative offsite construction methods to deliver much-needed new schools across the country.

Dave Saville, Managing Director, Wates Construction North, said: "Edgar Wood's completion provides a stellar example of how offsite construction can revolutionise the delivery of education builds. The lessons learnt on this build will support both Wates' other DfE projects procured via the Modern Methods of Construction framework and help champion the use of MMC on other schemes across the country. Delivering this project efficiently was imperative to allow students to benefit from their improved facilities as quickly as possible. We hope the students and staff enjoy their new school and we look forward to our next completion as part of this framework."