Shropshire schools to share in £267 million funding

Education Secretary Justine Greening announced that schools across the region are to receive the funding in the hope it will create more than 24,000 extra school places by 2020.

The funding is also aimed at giving 200 new projects to improve and expand school buildings the green light.

So far, Idsall School in Shifnal and Newport Girls High School have been announced as two of the schools to receive funding in Shropshire.

The news comes as new Government figures show that almost 735,000 additional school places have been created nationally since 2010 – 74,000 of them in the West Midlands – with 93 per cent of new primary school places and 92 per cent of new secondary places created in good or outstanding schools in the region in 2015-6.

The funding allocated this week also includes £58m for West Midlands schools to invest in upgrading their school buildings and gives the go-ahead to 200 vital school building work projects.

Education Secretary Justine Greening said: "Our Plan for Britain is to build a fairer society, with a good school place available for every child.

"This investment of £267m in the West Midlands, together with our proposals to create more good school places, will help ensure every young person in the region has the opportunity to fulfil their potential."

The funding is part of the £2.4 billion of capital funding allocated to create new school places across the country, and to maintain and improve the condition of school buildings. It is part of more than £24bn the Government has committed to investing in the school estate between 2015-2021.

This overall funding comprises of £980m of funding for local authorities in 2019-20 to create more than 60,000 school places. This is part of a wider investment of £7bn in the course of this Parliament, which alongside the investment in the free schools programme, the Government expects to create an additional 600,000 places by 2021.