£10m boost for classrooms

The learning environment must be updated, the government says

Schools are to get an extra £10m to build new classrooms, the government has announced.

The money, to be shared among 18 local authorities in England, will also go towards providing new staff rooms.

The biggest beneficiary is Manchester, where three schools get a total of £970,000 to create more "flexible spaces", "break-out space", informal areas and meeting rooms.

Next is Portsmouth, where the City of Portsmouth Girls School receives £850,000 for projects including a crèche.

'Multi-functional'

Schools minister Stephen Twigg said: "We are pleased to give the green light to a number of exciting projects, demonstrating how teaching environments could be in the future.

"These will explore the contribution that design can make to school workforce reform, such as new training centres for teachers and technicians, and areas that will support new methods of teaching, and multi-functional teaching and learning spaces."

Other schools will construct e-learning and resource centres.

One project will provide an "improved working environment" for education and health workers at a special school.

Mr Twigg added: "I look forward to seeing the development and construction of these new teaching environments.

"They will provide us with examples of how accommodation can be designed to assist with the government's objective of freeing up teachers to teach and enabling pupils to receive more attention."

• The other local authorities to benefit are: Cumbria, Northamptonshire, Rotherham, Hackney, Wolverhampton, Cheshire, Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Northumberland, Bolton, Hertfordshire, Bath and North East Somerset, East Sussex, Havering, Leicestershire and Medway.