Kier Longley has celebrated the start of work on site at Brighton's new £28 million Falmer Academy with a turf cutting ceremony.

Pupils, staff and representatives from the council joined the Kier Longley site team and academy sponsor Rod Aldridge to cut the first piece of turf.

The new facility, which is being developed by Brighton & Hove City Council under the Partnerships for Schools Academies Framework, will replace the existing buildings on the Falmer High School site with a modern facility that has been designed to enhance the pupils’ educational experience as well as benefit the community as a whole.


Offering up to 900 places for 11 to 16-year-olds and 250 sixth form places, the Falmer Academy will specialise in entrepreneurship and sports as well as providing a strong curriculum that includes maths, English, ICT and the sciences.

The academy's specialisms have been chosen by its sponsor Rod Aldridge, who is a Brighton-born successful businessman and founder of the Aldridge Foundation, a charity which promotes entrepreneurship through education.

The new academy is due to be completed in 2011 but pupils will be able to move to the first phase of the building when this is finished in September 2010.

(CD/KMcA)