Kirklees Council is pushing ahead with construction of the second of two new special schools in Huddersfield though extra funding will have to be found.
The council originally allocated £48.3 million for the new Joseph Norton Academy at Deighton and Woodley School & College in Almondbury.
Work is well underway on the new Joseph Norton Academy, being built on the site of the former Deighton Centre, and the council’s Cabinet gave the go ahead on Tuesday for a deal to be signed with contractors for the Woodley development.
The council says work on Woodley School & College – on the site of the demolished Almondbury Community School in Fernside Avenue – will start in summer 2026 for completion in autumn 2027.
A report to the Cabinet revealed that “additional funding” would be needed to complete the construction but the financial details were not made public due to “commercial confidentiality.”
Instead the council said the extra money would come from grants, council borrowing or re-allocation of money from elsewhere.
The Cabinet gave the go ahead for the project with approval for extra funding to be found.
How the new Woodley School & College could look
The council report says that funding for the school agreed in July 2025 came from “a mixture of government grant and council borrowing” but that “additional funding” was now required.
The report said this money could be found from other unspent grants from the Department for Education, the sale of land and property previously sold off by the council and other unallocated sources within the wider council budget.
The council will give an update on where this money is coming from when it publishes a new Capital Plan in February.
Woodley School & College will be moving from its current site in Lowerhouses. It will have 180 places for children aged five to 15 with autism and other complex communication needs. Post-16 provision will also be included.
The two new special schools will meet growing demand for places and will also save the council money by reducing the need for pupils to travel outside of Kirklees for their education.
Joseph Norton Academy – which caters for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs – will move from Scissett to Deighton and will double pupil numbers to around 130. It will rebrand to become the Josie Thirkell Academy when it opens.
Clr Graham Turner, the council’s Cabinet member for finance and regeneration, said: “The funding of this project will come from a mix of government grants and council borrowing and additional resources drawn down from uncommitted Department for Education grants and capital receipts.
“We will always prioritise Government grant funding before borrowing. Whilst the details of the funding package are subject to commercial sensitivity at the moment, it is a great example of why we dispose of unwanted assets.
“This allows us to use those capital receipts from those sales to invest and fund vital projects such as the new special education facility at Woodley.”
