Tower Hamlets Council building a brighter future for local students

An exciting new era for East End education is due to begin, with Tower Hamlets Council announcing Bouygues and Ramesys as itss partner for the Building Schools for the Future programme.

The appointment of Bouygues comes following a rigorous tender process that involved bidders having to demonstrate their ability to fully deliver the programme and provide value for money. With the approval of Partnership for Schools (PfS), the government agency responsible for the BSF programme, Bouygues has now been selected as the preferred bidder to deliver the Tower Hamlets programme.

The first schools in the borough to benefit from BSF will be Bethnal Green Technology College and St Paul's Way Community School. St Paul's Way will be completely rebuilt whilst Bethnal Green Technology College will be part rebuilt and part refurbished. Work is due to begin on both projects in early 2009.

The major improvement in ICT is one of the key benefits of BSF, and it is provided in Tower Hamlets' programme by Ramesys as part of the Bouygues consortium.

Cllr Clair Hawkins, Lead Member for Children's Services at Tower Hamlets Council said

"Our schools have made great improvements in terms of performance in recent years, and now we want to build on that progress by giving students and the local community better, modern facilities to learn in.We are now really looking forward to the work beginning and seeing the fantastic benefits that this programme will bring to Tower Hamlets."

Kevan Collins, Director of Children's Services at Tower Hamlets Council said: "This is the biggest investment our schools have ever seen, and it was vital that we had full confidence in our preferred bidder for the programme. Bouygues have demonstrated to us their ability to provide value for money and deliver work to a high standard, and are also already successfully delivering BSF schemes in Waltham Forest and Westminster. We're confident that this programme will be extremely positive for not only schools and students in Tower Hamlets, but the community as a whole."

Tim Byles, Chief Executive of Partnerships for Schools,the government agency responsible for the BSF programme said: "We congratulate Tower Hamlets on reaching this important milestone in their BFS project. It is good news for the progress of the BSF programme nationally and even better news for the learners and communities in the borough. The new and improved buildings, facilities and technology will have an enormous impact on the education and life chances of every young person in Tower Hamlets."