Westmorland and Furness Council in collaboration with the Diocese of Carlisle, have begun building works on a new extension to expand facilities at St Patrick’s C of E Primary School in Endmoor.
The £400,000 scheme to build a 90 metre square extension to the existing building, will allow the capacity of children at the school to increase, in response to new housing projects happening locally
The additional space will be inclusive of new toilets, a cloakroom area, storage facilities and a multi-use, 62 metre square classroom.
Westmorland and Furness Council have utilised two funding streams to make the works possible.
Section 106 funding is provided by housing developers to ensure sufficient school places are available for growing communities as new housing is built and basic need funding is the money the Department for Education gives local authorities each year to make sure there are enough school places for children in their local area.
Milorad Vasic, Director of Children’s Services, said:
“These enhancements will bring massive benefits to this rural school, to both its existing families and the new ones it can accommodate as the capacity increases. This funding will ensure that for years to come we have sufficient school places locally, as demand continues to grow and I’m looking forward to seeing the extension taking shape over the next few months.”
Allan Harty, Assistant Director for Corporate Assets, Fleet & Capital Programme, said:
“Contributions from developers and from government are helping us make improvements to local school buildings. We aim to make the best use of the funding available to us and I’m glad to see work beginning as we continue to invest in schools across Westmorland and Furness.”
Suzanne Edmondson, Head Teacher at St Patrick’s C of E Primary School, said:
“The school serves our community by providing a high standard of education and a warm and secure environment in which our children can flourish. Having more space will help us to continue to deliver these objectives and will bring huge benefits to our pupils as they progress on their educational journey with us. I would like to say how grateful I am to the team at Westmorland and Furness and the Diocese who have worked together to ensure we were successful in securing enough funding for the building to go ahead.”
Work began at the end of May and is expected to complete in the Autumn.