Member Article

Stoke-On-Trent school to open its doors as a community venue

A new venture from a Stoke-on-Trent school will enable local community groups to make use of its sports and performing arts facilities on evenings, weekends and during school holidays.

St Peter’s Academy has joined forces with School Lettings Solutions (SLS) to open its doors and become a leisure venue for various activities, such as fitness classes, dance workshops and social groups.

SLS partners with schools, academies and colleges to fully manage their facilities at zero cost to the organisations, while linking them with local community groups in need of affordable space.

The popular school, which is based in the Fenton community, will play host to activities such as football, dance and badminton. Local groups can now hire its facilities, which include a main hall, sports hall, dance studio, and full-size 3G pitch, for regular classes or ad hoc events.

It is hoped the partnership will open up new opportunities to the school’s students, as well as people of all ages from the local area.

One local club already benefiting from the partnership is Manor Hall Badminton Club, which started working with SLS at the beginning of the month. While the organisation has made use of the sports hall at St Peter’s since 2013, scheduling regular sessions was often difficult due to limited resources within the school. With SLS’ dedicated full managed lettings service, the booking process has now been streamlined, freeing up the school to focus on its core functions.

David Pulham, club secretary at Manor Hall Badminton Club, said: “Through our partnership with St Peter’s Academy, which started in 2013, we began working with SLS at the beginning of June. We’re looking forward to building up a relationship with SLS and taking advantage of the dedicated lettings service it provides.”

Andrea Baxter, finance manager of St Peter’s Academy, said: “We’re really excited to be opening up the school to the wider community. We are proud of the facilities we offer our students, such as our dance studio and 3G pitch, and it makes sense to be able to offer our facilities during evenings and weekends when the site is available. The additional income this will generate will benefit our school.

“We’ve already got some great partners signed up to use our facilities, such as SoccerSixes and Manor Hill Badminton Club, and we’re looking forward to welcoming more on board. This can only be a positive thing for our students and people in the area.”

SLS currently works with more than 130 schools nationwide, helping them to make the best use of their facilities. It provides a fully managed service, including managing bookings and staffing the facilities to ensure rooms are secure and ready for the next school day. The business is expanding across the country and is looking to sign up more schools across the West Midlands, which are currently facing hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding cuts.

Paul Andrews, director of SLS, said: “It’s great to welcome St Peter’s Academy as our latest partner. The school has got some brilliant facilities and we’ve already had lots of booking enquiries. We’re passionate about ensuring people have access to opportunities that boost their health and wellbeing, so we’re keen to provide local groups with marketing support to make sure their clubs thrive and are well attended.

“There is huge potential to provide more places like this for people of all ages to come together, which will be really positive for the area. At the same time, our partnerships provide a new stream of income for schools as their budgets come under more and more pressure.”

To enquire about the facilities that are on offer, call 01642 693 811 or email stpetersacademy@schoollettings.org

For more information or to book facilities at St Peter’s Academy, visit http://stpetersacademy.schoolbookings.co.uk/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ursula Hutchinson .