Shrewsbury Academy: Multi Sports Area Development

Aim

We're looking to improve our sporting facilities to attract the community and to create an environment that our students are proud of.

Who are we?

Shrewsbury Academy is an 11-16 mixed secondary school with academy status on Shrewsbury, Shropshire. It was established in September 2016 following the amalgamation of Sundorne School and The Grange School, operating across the two former school sites known as Corndon Crescent Campus and Worcester Road Campus respectively The Grange School was initially a community school and convverted to Academy status in 2013 when Sundorne School had also converted and sponsored the school, with both schools coming under the aegis of the Shrewsbury Academies Trust. 

Shrewsbury Academies Trust went into administration and the Marches Academy Trust were appointed by the Department for Education to take over in 2019. 

We have been hit very hard financially by the lockdown, with the high continued expense of maintaining a base in the heart of London, and no activity to help offset these costs. 

We need external funding to support our vision and to make the facility at Shrewsbury Academy the best it can be for our school community. 

Community impact

The school has previously had a poor reputation within the community. The Marches Academy Trust took over the school on 2019 with a clear vision to put the children back at the centre of all decisions and to make this the local school of choice. We are on a long journey and want the children to be proud of the school they come to each day.

We are Shrewsbury Academy. With community at our heart, we are a school for the future, for now, for you. #proudtobeSA

Community involvement is a very important aspect of who we are, and not all have an interest in sport.  At our school we support many other organisations, businesses, and events where we can, some of whom are listed here

• Territorial Army – access a building on site for regular meets
• Pauline Quirke Dance Academy – host regular dance workshops
• Summer School – an event we host each year for members of our primary school community
• Something 4 Tea Programme – a food facility open to all students and staff to take food home for tea
• Food Hub – on site access for the community to access the food bank
• Shrewsbury Town in the Community - access on site facilities for regular meets and training session
• Police Cadets - access on site facilities for regular meets and training sessions

Some of the above we give for free, some we charge for, which help us fund our activities.

Why are we crowdfunding?

During the pandemic, our school remained open throughout with a huge emphasis on utilising outside space. This time really made us realise that to inspire children and young people, we need to provide them with a facility that is fit for purpose. Covid-19 has completely stopped us from teaching many sports and introducing new people to the sport.  

We also have a community of local people looking to play sport in the evenings so an improvement in the facility will allow netball, football, badminton and tennis to be put back on the programme for our students, staff and members of the community. 

With high than average crime rates in the area, we feel that we need to provide a safe place for the community to access which we believe will help reduce local crime.

We have a program of putting on several after school sessions for students to support with wellbeing, building confidence and inspiring a love of sport. This facility would do more than be a playground, many of our students and members of the community don’t have access to a facility due to financial barriers of not being able to afford gym/sport memberships. We can offer sport for free in conjunction with PE staff, community charities and volunteers.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We are wanting to redevelop our playground to not only improve the overall appearance of the school to attract people to play but to make the surface safe, clean and accessible for students, staff and the community. 

The pitches will include netball, football and give is the opportunity to play tennis and badminton. The space we have means in total we can have multiple sports/games playing at the same time.

The playground will provide clear space for a number of sports to take place. It will provide an invaluable resource to the school, not just for our PE lessons and youth work, but to support our community members in developing a safe space for them to get fit, take part in sport and get to meet new community members.

How you can play your part

The cost for sandblasting the old lines away, cleaning the area and recovering in full with new lines is £43,700 + VAT.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success! 

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, maybe a sponsored activity or similar, use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. 

This project closed unsuccessfully on 21st October 2022