STUDENTS at the city's specialist sports academy are to take advantage of their new pitches five months ahead of schedule.
St Mary's College is undergoing a £19.5m redevelopment under Hull's £400m Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.
The construction teams from Morgan Sindall – part of the Hull Esteem Consortium, which is delivering the schools – have brought forward the completion of the sports pitches to give the students access when they return from half-term.
Sophie Teasdale, director of operations for the school, said: "The team at Morgan Sindall has been excellent from the very beginning. We have worked so closely with them and they have understood exactly what we have being trying to achieve.
"Sport is a huge part of our educational offer to the city and facilities such as these are simply amazing.
"It is great we have been able to access these so much sooner than originally planned.
"We pride ourselves on providing excellent sporting facilities to make sure our students have the very best amenities to be able to excel.
"We can now genuinely say what we have is world-class."
The students will be able to use the 5,500sq m, flood-lit, synthetic football pitch for 11-a-side matches or separated into three nine-a-side pitches.
The school also has a new multi-use games area, which is almost 5,000 sq m and can be used as two basketball courts, four tennis courts, six netball courts or two five-a-side football pitches.
Paul Limb, project manager for Morgan Sindall said: "The pitches are really quite spectacular.
"We're really pleased to be able to hand over this element of the school at such an early stage.
"We understood how important they were and we have worked closely with the school to make sure we could bring the scheduling of this forward."
Morgan Sindall's teams are currently applying the final decorations to the second floor of the St Mary's building, while the first floor is having fitted furniture put in place.
Tracey Kingdom, project manager for Hull Esteem Consortium, said: "It's great to see progress such as this. "The team at Morgan Sindall deserves real praise for getting the pitches together for St Mary's at such an early stage.
"It is, of course, a specialist sports academy and these facilities will go some way to continue to help them to harness and develop the talents of young people for many years to come.
"The BSF programme was about creating a better future for everyone in Hull and giving students the best possible armoury to achieve and excel.
"The manner in which this school has been developed demonstrates exactly the ethos the whole project is built upon."
