Schools celebrate £1.2m government funding for buildings improvements

Springfield Primary School in Spondon will receive over £400,000 for new windows, Beaufort and Cherry Tree Hill primary schools in Chaddesden are in line for a total of £445,000 to fund new fire doors, while new heating at Portway Junior School in Allestree will be funded by over £265,000 of Government cash.

The funding was announced in the Government’s latest round of its school infrastructure repairs and improvement programme known as the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), which, despite growing concern about the state of schools, saw the lowest number of school building work requests approved since the funding system began in 2015.

Joseph Fitzsimmons, a director in Eddisons’ specialist education team, said: “We are proud of the great results we’ve achieved for the Odyssey Collaborative Trust in Derby, with four out of the six bids we submitted on their behalf getting funding.

“In total we succeeded in winning £20m of building improvement funding for schools across the country but this year’s funding announcement serves to highlight the stark lack of funding for school improvements, with less than a third of total bids getting the go ahead.”

In the East Midlands, 182 (64%) of the 268 bids that were submitted for improvements and repairs to school buildings were turned down by the Government for CIF funding.

Mr Fitzsimmons added: “Eddisons will continue to work with those schools and academies whose bids were unsuccessful this time, offering guidance on future bids and advice on other current funding opportunities.

“The CIF bidding procedure is highly complex and our education team has built up huge knowledge and experience to help deliver successful bids and projects that make a real difference to schools, students and teachers.”

The Odyssey Collaborative Trust school improvement projects in Derby will get underway shortly and will be project managed by Eddisons.