It is the Mildenhall Academy’s final year at the Bury Road site. In 2021 it will move across to its new site at the Mildenhall Hub, next door to its existing 6th form centre, MCA6, which is likely to take place within the first half of 2021.
The progress of this new building has of course been eagerly being watched by staff and students since its start. We were delighted to therefore give a recent tour to new year 7 pupils and final year 11 pupils, excited to see how it was developing, along with Principal Nicola Hood, for whom the move away from the outdated buildings on Bury Road, to a modern, fit for purpose, shared facility, cannot come quick enough.
“The hub and all the good things it brings together, is so important to me, my staff, our students and our wider academy family,” Miss Hood said. “Finally, the students and the community of Mildenhall are going to have an educational building that reflects the outstanding work and achievements of our staff and students.
“Standards at the academy have improved but it is hard to raise the profile of the academy in the community even further with the buildings we currently have. We need a building that reflects this and our ambitions for the future – and that is the Mildenhall Hub.”
As well as a new school, the multi-million-pound hub will also bring together leisure facilities, a health centre, library, children’s centre, Citizens Advice and Job Centre, as well as desk space for Suffolk Police, West Suffolk Council, Suffolk County Council and the NHS.
Cllr Jo Rayner, West Suffolk Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Hubs said: “The hub is about delivering modern facilities including education, leisure and health, shaped to the needs of local residents now and into the future. It’s also about a culture change in how all of the various organisations work together for the simple benefit of the residents in and around Mildenhall that we serve. It’s unique, it’s ambitious and it’s about services that are more resilient to some of the future funding challenges that we may all face. More than anything though, it is about people and that’s the thing that makes it so exciting and why it’s great to hear the enthusiasm from the academy as it looks ahead to its big move.”
