North Swindon MP, Justin Tomlinson, has joined staff and pupils at Highworth Warneford School in celebrating the news that the Government to is to provide £1.8million of funding for a new school sports centre.
The positive news comes after the school's original application in April was unsuccessful and Justin wrote to the Education Funding Agency (EFA) to highlight his concerns that an error had been made in the EFA's assessment of the bid.
The ambitious school has already worked hard to improve its facilities and since 2012 has successfully secured four bids from the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund covering:
a) New Science block roof - £26,000
b) Upgraded mains electricity with new switchgear - £47,000
c) Replaced metal frame windows, with double-glazed windows - £99,000
d) Refurbishment of three Science classrooms - £138,000
Building on this work, the school will now start on the new facility which would comprise of four sports courts, two classrooms and changing rooms. At present, the school's 910 students have to walk to the Highworth Rec, not only eating into valuable lesson time but causing an ongoing safety concern with regards to the busy roads and is an understandable nightmare with the British weather.
It is hoped the centre will be finished by this time next year and the centre will also be open to the public at weekends, school holidays and evenings, when the school is not using it.
Justin Tomlinson MP said: "I am delighted to have been able to help the school to secure this much-needed funding. This was incredibly important for the children of Highworth and the surrounding areas, because firstly it will be a fantastic state of the art facility for use of both the school and the local community. Secondly, it has been a long standing problem for the children to have to cross several busy roads to use the Highworth Rec, which is both dangerous and with the great British weather potentially all too often leads to a soaking. This is a real boost to the school and the community."
John Saunders, Headteacher of said: "It is excellent news, we are absolutely delighted. We have been hoping for and wanting a sports hall probably for the last 10 years, because what we do at the moment is use the facilities at Highworth Rec –which are very good facilities but the children have to walk along a busy road to get to them, which is a concern for us. Having facilities on site will be absolutely brilliant and improve the quality of education we can give to children."
