Willmott Dixon starts on site in October, the new building opens in August 2028 and the site is clear in 2029. The school is still £650,000 short for desks.
The contractor that will rebuild Bramhall High School has been appointed, and the work starts next month. Willmott Dixon confirmed on 22 September that the Department for Education has given it a £46m contract to replace the Seal Road school, with construction beginning in October. (Willmott Dixon, 22 September 2026)
The school stays open the whole time. Every block except the maths block comes down, but only after the new building is finished and occupied.
The programme the contractor has published runs like this:
- construction starts October 2026
- the new school building is complete in August 2028, in time for the new academic year
- the six existing blocks are demolished after that
- overall site completion is expected in September 2029
That is the detail worth holding on to. The new school opens in 2028. The building site does not leave Seal Road until 2029.
What is being built
The new building is a three-storey school of 9,252 square metres for 11 to 16-year-olds, designed by Sheppard Robson, with specialist provision for pupils with special educational needs. The single-storey maths block is kept and remodelled. External works cover new sports provision, car parking, fencing and landscaping, and the finished building gets photovoltaic panels, ground source heat pumps and electric vehicle charging points.
The council’s own record of the approved scheme puts the new building at 10,839 square metres of gross internal floor area. (Officer report, DC/098847) Neither document says what the gap between the two figures covers, so treat the smaller number as the contractor’s description of the new teaching block and the larger one as the floor area consented by the council.
The school’s own account of the new building lists 25 classrooms, 10 science labs with a central prep room, a drama studio and drama classroom, a music area with a recording studio and practice rooms, two food and hospitality rooms, design and technology workshops, three ICT suites, a SEND, Thrive and transition hub with its own entrance, a Sport England-compliant sports hall, two multi-use games areas and covered storage for around 200 bicycles. (Bramhall High School, New Build)
Capacity does not change. The school takes 1,350 pupils now and the new one is built for 1,350.
Why the school is being rebuilt at all
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, RAAC, was found in the buildings. Remedial work made them safe to use, but some facilities never reopened, the squash courts among them, and community use of the school’s facilities stopped. Condition surveys concluded that most of the buildings should be replaced rather than patched again. Pupils have been using temporary cabins since November 2023.
The block with RAAC is more than 60 years old and was last significantly invested in by Cheshire County Council in 1974.
The rebuild the school asked for, and the one it got
This is not the scheme Bramhall High wanted, and the argument was had in the House of Commons three months ago.
On 24 June the Cheadle MP, Tom Morrison, used an adjournment debate to tell the House that the school had been “blocked” from a full rebuild. He said the school completed its brief expecting the whole site to be replaced, that the appointed contractor agreed a complete rebuild met the brief and the budget, and that the partial rebuild “does not meet the requirements of Bramhall high school-specific brief”. (Hansard, 24 June 2026)
The education minister, Josh MacAlister, defended the decision in the same debate. He said 90% of the school will be rebuilt, and that the maths block is staying because it was built after 2000, has solar panels and modern features, and detailed surveys show it is in good condition and “does not warrant demolishing or rebuilding”. He said the department would work with the school to remodel it so it integrates with the new buildings.
He also confirmed the appointment that was made public this week: “Willmott Dixon is the appointed contractor, and it has worked closely with the school and the Department to design an ambitious new build. We expect to have spades in the ground later this year.”
The £650,000 the DfE is not paying for
The sharper point from that debate is still unresolved, and it is the one local families will feel.
The rebuilding programme pays for fixed furniture, fixtures and equipment. It does not normally pay for loose furniture. The minister set out the line plainly: schools get a new kitchen, ICT in every classroom, lighting rigs for drama, “however, we do not normally provide new standard loose furniture, such as tables and chairs, as schools should have an ongoing programme to replace them as they reach the end of their life”.
Bramhall High’s own fundraising page says the same thing from the other side. Without extra money, it says, “students will move into a brand-new building equipped with ageing, mismatched furniture and outdated resources transferred from the current site”. The school is asking businesses, individuals and organisations to help it raise approximately £650,000 for classroom and communal furniture, technology, arts and sports equipment, community use of the new facilities, refurbishment of the retained maths block and landscaping. (Bramhall High School, Fundraising)
The public appeal has not moved far. The JustGiving campaign run by Bramhall High School Association, registered charity 1027394, opened on 31 March 2026 and has raised £115 from four donations, against a target of £650,000. The most recent donation was made on 13 August. The school also takes contributions in kind and direct approaches from businesses, at fundraising@bramhallhigh.stockport.sch.uk.
The planning permission
Stockport Council’s Planning & Highways Regulation Committee granted permission on 13 August. The minute records the decision as permission granted “subject to the imposition of conditions and the completion of a legal agreement securing a commuted sum of £13,902 to fund long-term monitoring of on-site biodiversity net gain (BNG) compensatory habitats”. (Printed minutes, 13 August 2026)
The meeting lasted 48 minutes and both school applications went through. The other one was Moorfield Primary in Hazel Grove, also approved. We reported both schemes in detail before the vote, including the objections from Seal Road and Nevin Close about the new vehicle access, in our guide to the two rebuild decisions.
On the ground the approved scheme replaces the existing bus loop and the vehicular access off Seal Road with new access points further east, adds a bus waiting area for up to five buses, and consolidates parking into a single car park of 132 spaces with 14 accessible bays and 13 EV charging bays.
What it means for you
If you live near the school. Construction traffic starts arriving in October and does not stop until 2029. The controls on it sit in the Construction Environmental Management Plan and the Construction Traffic Management Plan, which are agreed with the council after permission rather than decided at committee. If deliveries, hours or HGV routing become a problem on Seal Road, Nevin Close or Dairyground Road, those documents and the conditions attached to DC/098847 are what you hold the site to. Our Stockport roadworks and travel page tracks the live closures across the borough.
If you have a child at the school or applying to it. The school has an open evening tomorrow, Thursday 24 September, from 5pm to 7.30pm, and says all are welcome. Capacity stays at 1,350 and the curriculum is unchanged. Teaching continues on site throughout, in the existing blocks until the new building opens in August 2028.
If you want the new school properly equipped. The £650,000 gap is real and publicly documented by both the school and the minister. Donations go through the school’s JustGiving campaign, and the school is explicitly asking for equipment, services and in-kind support from local businesses as well as cash.
If you are a local firm. Willmott Dixon says it will prioritise spend with local businesses and create local employment, and has committed to more than 400 hours of engagement with the school through work experience, skills sessions, trade placements and interventions for Pupil Premium students. The company is already completing the £20m Marple Community Hub for Stockport Council and built Stockport Interchange and Viaduct Park for Transport for Greater Manchester.
Cllr Mark Roberts, the leader of Stockport Council, said in the contractor’s announcement that the investment is “a hugely positive step for Bramhall High School and its pupils” and a “clear example of how we are delivering on our Council Plan”. The headteacher, Paul Williams, called the rebuild “a transformative moment in our school’s history” and said that “after a challenging period due to RAAC, this project marks a bold new chapter”.
For everything else being decided and built across the borough, see our running Stockport planning news page.
Have your say