A NEW high school which aims to teach resilience will open in temporary classrooms in Great Lever in September.

King’s Leadership Academy ­has applied to site three buildings housing classrooms on land belonging to the now closed Hayward School, off Lever Edge Lane, as Bolton faces an unprecedented demand for high school places.

A new purpose built school is set to open in the area within the next three years.

This year, 180 pupils will be admitted to the school with a maximum of 540 pupils aged 11 to 16 being educated in the temporary buildings by September 2021.

King’s Leadership, which has been nationally recognised for its personal development work with pupils, has moved to assure parents the temporary classrooms are of a high standard. Sir Iain Hall, the CEO of the Great Schools Trust, which runs the multi-academy trust, said: “These temporary classrooms are of a very high quality. We installed them on our Warrington site before the new building was open and lived in them for three very successful years. I was amazed by the quality of them — some of the classrooms were better than those in the new build. They are pre-built and come with science laboratories, fully equipped with kitchens and a dinning room.”

The King's Leadership Academy has operated for six years in Warrington and and is now in the top four per cent of non-selective schools based on education. The Bolton school will be its first in Greater Manchester, where Sir Iain worked as a teacher.

Sir Iain said the school placed great emphasis on developing the character of pupils: “Pupils who start in September will be taken on an outdoor pursuits course to help to develop their character to make them resilient by stepping outside of their comfort zone so they don’t get scared of things like exams. We have taken the model of an independent school and applied it to our schools without the fees,” he said, “We are very proud of this model.”

The application for temporary classrooms will go before planning committee in April.