£162 million school programme underway in Norfolk

More than £40 million of school building programmes are underway across Norfolk, creating new and extended schools for hundreds of the county’s children.

Members of Norfolk County Council’s Children’s Services Committee are to meet to discuss progress on the council’s existing £162 million school capital programme. They will also hear about future plans to develop capital projects for secondary schools students and children with special educational needs.

Since 2013, the council has created over 3,600 new places in the county’s schools with £23 million spent over the last year.

Two projects, both in Attleborough, are nearing completion and are expected to be ready at the start of 2018.

The council wants to continue to promote school to school support and the grouping of governance to ensure that schools are resilient and can adapt to changes in funding.

The report to committee recommends adopting the approach favoured nationally, where 1,500 children across a group of schools is considered the ideal minimum.

Stuart Dark, vice chairman of the children’s services committee at Norfolk County Council, said: “Our school building programme is helping to develop new places for children across the county, utilising funding available from developers and creating new spaces in the communities where they are needed.

“We are also developing a new strategy to create more school places for children with special educational needs, because we want children to be taught in their local communities wherever possible.

“Over the last decade the school system across Norfolk has continued to change but our role, to champion the very best education for Norfolk’s children, remains. At the moment, 90 per cent of Norfolk schools are rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding.

“We want to continue to work with the Regional Schools Commissioner, schools and academies to ensure that schools can continue to improve and that the way they are governed and structured supports that.

“We know that when schools join together they find it easier to recruit the best staff, manage their budgets and provide a broad and exciting curriculum for their children.”