Investing In Our Schools- £48 Million in 3 Years

TEMPORARY CLASSROOMS TO BE SCRAPPED

Bedford Borough Council will invest over £48 million in schools from 2014 - 2017.

The School Capital Investment Plan, which was approved by the Council's Executive last week, sets out the Council's ambition to:

• Replace temporary classrooms and mobiles with brick-built buildings
• Get rid of makeshift temporary classrooms
• Ensure that we have enough school places for the future
• Make sure our school buildings are fit to learn in

Lib Dem Cllr Henry Vann, Portfolio Holder for Education said: "Bedford is the best place in the country to go to lower or primary school. Over 90% of all our schools are ranked as good or outstanding by Ofsted. Our teachers, pupils and the communities behind them need buildings that are fit to learn in; this plan will get rid of the makeshift temporary classrooms of the past and deliver sufficient capacity for the future.

"This investment shows how committed we are in ensuring that all of our children and young people have access to the highest quality of teaching and learning, and have the best start in life."

The remarkable progress achieved by Bedford Borough's schools in recent years was confirmed in Ofsted's latest Annual Report, which ranks the Borough as the best place in the country for lower and primary schools.

Even the wider picture, including middles and upper schools, shows 24 out of the 27 Local Authority maintained schools inspected by Ofsted this year (since September 2012) have been judged to be either good or outstanding.

Bedford's stunning performance in the Ofsted league table comes after remarkable progress was made over the GSCE (5A* - C, including English and Maths) results in the Borough. This saw this figure rise a massive 5.4%, at a time when nationally the performance went down.