Schools revamped in standards drive

A multi-million pound investment in schools across North Yorkshire has been heralded as vital to updating ageing sites in the latest phase of a campaign to ensure adequate education services are provided.

Roof, window and boiler replacements have been carried out across 49 school sites.

A MULTI-MILLION pound investment in schools across North Yorkshire has been heralded as vital to updating ageing sites in the latest phase of a long-running campaign to ensure adequate education services are provided across the county.

North Yorkshire County Council has carried out roof, window and boiler replacements across 49 school sites, as well as completing major works, such as school extensions, new classrooms and kitchens.

The investment is part of an effort to improve existing provision, as well as create additional school places to meet current and future need.

The authority has revealed that £4m had been spent on the raft of improvements and has also announced that it had also committed an additional £1m from its budgets for further works over the next year.

Overall this year, the county council will have allocated nearly £12m to improving school sites.

The county council’s executive member for schools, Coun Patrick Mulligan, said: “North Yorkshire is responsible for some 350 schools, many of them small and many with aging or historic buildings.

“The funding we have provided from government allocations cannot address all of our school maintenance and modernisation needs, as these are considerable, but the works will make a significant difference.

“We want all our children and young people to enjoy the highest standards in teaching and learning and these works will help our schools continue to be fit for purpose to deliver a 21st century school curriculum.”

The county council plans two major secondary school modernisation projects – one at Graham School, in Scarborough, to bring a split-site school onto one location with a new teaching block, and one at King James School, in Knaresborough, to create a new sixth-form building.

The music studio at Risedale Sports and Community College, in Richmondshire, has also been renovated to include a recording studio.

And demand for additional school places is also being provided for through a number of projects, including the expansion of Athelstan Community Primary School, in Sherburn-in-Elmet, which has new classrooms in a two-storey extension well as a new, larger kitchen.

It comes following a succession of closures of the county’s rural schools as council chiefs are forced to make tough decisions due to dwindling pupil numbers in some areas, which they fear could impact on the quality of pupils’ education, and rising debts.

Earlier this month, the county council agreed the closure of Swainby and Potto Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School and Ingleby Arncliffe Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School.

The sites recently shared staff and resources amid financial pressures, a severe lack of pupils and concerns over the quality of education.

Together the schools had predicted a deficit of nearly £57,000 this financial year, rising to £257,000 in 2019/20, based on 20 pupils across the two sites.

This summer there were only 19 pupils going to both schools.

As the country’s biggest county, North Yorkshire has the highest number of small schools in England, with 50 sites having fewer than 50 pupils.

The works will make a significant difference. County councillor Patrick Mulligan