Waltham Forest announces £30m in school funding

A £30 million school redevelopment project has been announced for Waltham Forest.

It comes after Waltham Forest Council challenged the government's decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme in 2010. Two learning centres in the borough - Willowfield School and Leytonstone School - will have significant improvements carried out to them.

As well as this, the coalition's Priority School Funding Programme will see grants provided for five establishments. It means young families seeking property to rent in Waltham Forest should benefit from an improvement in the quality of educational services it has to offer.

Under the terms of the plan, Willowfield School is to be relocated and built from scratch so children have access to top-of-the-range facilities. Some £20 million has been set aside for the project, while £10 million has also been earmarked for Leytonstone School as an extensive remodelling scheme is carried out.

Leader of the local authority Councillor Chris Robbins, said: "The plans we have ... promise to be first-rate and hearing that we'll be able to overhaul five more of our schools is fantastic news.

"We've got excellent teachers and young people with the ability to achieve anything they set their minds to, but to help them reach their fullest potential we also need first-class facilities to help their studies."

He added young people in the borough will have a great opportunity to be successful thanks to the money being invested, as well as the £50 million being used to supply extra spaces and the £1 million to target attainment.

It comes after Waltham Forest libraries launched an easy-to-use research tool called Credo. Over 200,000 images, audio files and nearly 100 videos are now available through a portal on the internet, as well as encyclopaedias, dictionaries, thesauri and quotations.

Youngsters who have specific homework projects can use the service to augment them, while it will prove to be beneficial for students of all ages. 

Posted by Ben Carter

Published 28th May, 2012

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