SEVEN schools across Warwickshire are set to receive a share of a huge funding pot of £21 million to put towards improvements.
The funding will be spent on refurbishment and the addition of school buildings and has been allocated by the 2022/23 Education Capital Programme from various sources, including the Basic Need capital grant from the Department of Education.
The Programme’s proposed plans were given the green light at a recent meeting of Warwickshire County Council’s (WCC) cabinet.
Stratford School, Shipston High School and Lighthorne Heath Primary School are all set to receive cash in Stratford district.
Whilst Bishops Tachbrook C of E Primary School, Briar Hill Infant School, St Margaret C of E Junior School and Oakley Grove All-Through School will receive a slice of cash in Warwick district.
Over in Rugby, Griffin School will receive funds.
Shipston High School will receive £10million. This will deliver a new sports hall with changing facilities for the school and refurbish and remodel existing buildings. These works will enable the school to offer an additional 30 spaces per year group, which will help to accommodate local housing developments and larger primary cohorts due to move up to secondary.
Funding of £2.2million has been allocated to Stratford School. This is to cover an increase in projected costs, which will start in the autumn.
Lighthorne Heath Primary School has been allocated £164,000 for the refurbishment of toilets, the conversion of a group space into an additional classroom and the conversion of an ICT space into an intervention/nurture space.
Bishops Tachbrook CofE School will receive £400,000 to build a new classroom to facilitate a forecasted increase in reception pupils for the reception 2023 cohort.
Briar Hill Infant School and St Margaret’s CofE Junior School will receive £768,000. Again, this is to help resolve the shortfall in places for reception pupils in the South Leamington/Warwick area and will deliver additional teaching spaces at both schools.
Plans for the new Oakley Grove All-Through School were approved in September 2021 with a budget of some £50million. Contractors now estimate an additional £6m is required to deliver this scheme due to raising construction industry costs.
Griffin School (Rugby Gateway) is another new school – a one form entry primary school approved in July 2015. Due to delays related to the housing development outside WCC’s control, this project has been subject to a site change and pushbacks in the school’s opening date, resulting in increases to the predicted budget. The latest increase forecast by the contractor is due to raised costs from suppliers, with a total additional requirement of around £1million.
Coun Kam Kaur, WCC;s spokesperson for education, said: “When we are investing in the education of our children and young people, it’s so important to get it right. We feel these plans address the needs of our schools fairly and proportionately, improving learning and recreation spaces where required and helping to accommodate the increase in demand for places we’re seeing in many areas of the county.”
