MULTI-million pound plans to build a new school have been unveiled as Bolton’s newest secondary school prepares to ‘open’.

UTC Bolton has officially become University Collegiate School, and will take in its first Year Seven cohort next month, when schools reopen following the summer break.

The Secretary of State for Education has officially signed off the plans allowing UTC Bolton, which opened five years ago, to expands its cohort from Year Nine to Year 12 to include Years Seven and Eight.

It can now be revealed a new £10 million school ­— funded by the government ­— will be built next to the current UTC Bolton campus to allow it to expand to accommodate the additional pupils.

The new building will include sports facilities and will be built behind the nearby National Centre for Motorsport Engineering on the land which is currently derelict.

Subject to planning permission, it is hoped work on the new school will start soon.

Plans to expand UTC Bolton and transform it into a secondary school were put forward earlier this year, with some parents finding a place had been allocated for their child at the town centre campus on national offer day, even though it was not a choice at the time applications were being made.

Bolton Council’s executive cabinet member for children’s services, Cllr Anne Galloway, said: “I am pleased to welcome the UCS and I am sure the first cohort of Year Seven students are looking forward to starting in September.

“This new school is an important part of our work to create more secondary school places in the borough as more people choose to live in Bolton. A great deal of work has gone into making this possible and I look forward to celebrating the success of UCS pupils for years to come.”

Professor George E Holmes DL, president and vice chancellor of the University of Bolton, added: “I would like to congratulate all colleagues involved in the transaction which has been complex but entirely successful.

"My thanks particularly to Dr Sue Duncan and Bill Webster, in his capacity as the chair of the UTC. I look forward to a thriving addition to the university campus.”

Bolton UTC, which Ofsted rated as good, was opened in 2015 as part of the government’s flagship programme to open university technical colleges.