[O]n the morning of Saturday 5 May, the first of three new Early Year Programme classrooms will be craned in to position at Inglewood Infant School in Carlisle. The classrooms have been jointly funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency and Cumbria County Council.
The contract to build and install the new classrooms was awarded to local firm Roland Hill Ltd and the classrooms have been created using an off-site construction method (see attached photos).
In June 2016, local authorities were invited to bid for capital funding to create new childcare places. These places would support the delivery of the government’s manifesto commitment to give working parents of 3 and 4 year-olds 30 hours of free childcare a week.
Eligible local authorities were invited to submit applications for specific projects in their area. The priority for this fund was to target areas within local authorities most in need of capital funding to deliver 30 hours places.
Cumbria submitted a bid for six projects which met or exceeded the Department for Education criteria but was unsuccessful in the first wave of allocations.
The Government subsequently doubled the original fund to £100 million without local authorities having to resubmit applications, and Cumbria was successful in the second wave of funding – receiving £359,548 to increase the accommodation at three schools – Beckstone Primary in Workington, Inglewood Infants in Carlisle and St Mary’s Catholic Primary in Whitehaven.
Cumbria County Council has contributed £140,000 to the project.
The funding will enable the three schools to deliver 30 hours places to help meet demand from local working parents.
Cllr Sue Sanderson, Cabinet Member for Schools and Learning, said: “This will be an exciting stage of the project to deliver much-needed new classroom space to three schools in Cumbria, and I am looking forward to seeing Inglewood’s new classroom craned in to position! The council worked hard to secure the funding and it will enable the three schools to meet the demands of their local communities. We are committed to providing the best learning environments for our children within the resources we have available, and will continue to identify any and all opportunities to increase the amount of funding available to support these projects.”
