The £30 million education campus opened its doors to pupils in January 2019, but was officially opened by HRH Princes Anne on 02nd July 20019. The princess was welcomed to the school by pupils waving flags and presenting her with flowers before she was given a tour of the new facilities.

Campus Whitehaven brings together St Benedict’s Roman Catholic High School and Mayfield SEN School into one state-of-the-art, co-located campus. One of the key aspects of the design was to establish the optimum level of integration between the two schools, within the Campus ethos. The new Campus not only improves social interaction of children from all backgrounds, but also facilitates and encourages educational facilities to share ideas, knowledge and resources.

The design and layout of the new schools and associated facilities have been developed through close collaboration with St Benedict’s Catholic School and Mayfield School, endeavouring to meet the separate requirements of both schools whilst integrating these facilities within a joint campus.

The campus layout also incorporates a range of informal spaces, new access points, car parking and new sports facilities including an indoor sports hall, fitness suite, hydrotherapy pool, natural turf pitches, an all-weather pitch and two multi-use games areas which will be available to the local community during non-school hours. The design has resulted in a modern school development with associated facilities to ensure a high-quality learning environment for students at both schools.

Funding for Whitehaven Campus came from a range of partners including the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Copeland Community Fund, and Cumbria County Council. Sellafield Ltd invested the first ten million into the project. Jamie Reed, head of corporate affairs, said: “This is the biggest single investment in education in Whitehaven since the 1960s.”