Cash boost for Warwickshire schools

Expansion is needed to meet an increase in admissions in year seven from 210 pupils to 322 – an increase of 112.

Warwickshire County Council said the surge is because of successful admission appeals and its popularity and added that the increase is a one-off for this September.

The money will go towards providing temporary classrooms for areas such as science, technology and ICT, plus communal space and the school is also proposing to refurbish and extend existing communal areas.

A county spokesman said: “The local authority has revised admission numbers for September 2016 to try and ensure that the school’s capacity matches the number of pupil places granted.”

The council has also approved the investment of more than £3 million for a new primary school for south Warwick on the Aylesford School site.

As reported in the Courier last autumn, it will make Aylesford one of the first combined secondary and primary schools in the UK and it expects to gradually expand to cater for 1,000 pupils by 2021.

Although Aylesford is an academy, the county is paying for the primary section as part of its duty to provide three junior schools to cope with housing development in Warwick.

And Barford St Peter’s CE Primary will get £330,000 from the county to enable it to organise as a one-form entry school with seven class groups each of 30 pupils to cope with recent housing developments in the area.

More than £185,000 will be paid towards it by housing developer contributions, payable at a later stage.