More than 3,000 extra school places have been created in Surrey this year to keep pace with rising pupil numbers.
As the new school year begins, Surrey County Council revealed that 2,515 extra primary places have been created and 490 additional secondary places.
The 3,005 new places are enough to fill 100 additional classrooms.
It brings the total number of school places created over the past six years to 16,000 – with a further 11,000 needed over the next five years.
But the county council is warning that it faces a shortfall of tens of millions of pounds in the funds it needs to create places in future.
Peter Martin, Surrey County Council’s Deputy Leader, said: “We’ve steadily increased the number of school places in Surrey to meet rising demand but it’s getting harder and harder to find the funds we need to do this.
“We’ve created 16,000 extra places in six years – enough to fill more than 500 classrooms – and will continue to make sure every child who needs a place gets one but with strained council budgets getting ever tighter, any extra help from the Government for this task would be gratefully received.
“We know we need to provide an extra 11,000 primary and secondary school places over the next five years but face a shortfall of tens of millions of pounds in the funds we need to create them.”
Surrey school places by numbers
- 3,005 extra places created in schools this year
- 2,515 extra places in primary schools this year
- 490 extra places in secondary schools this year
- 11,000 extra places needed over the next five years
- 16,000 extra places created in Surrey schools over the last six years
- 32 primary schools expanded in 2016
- 3 secondary schools expanded in 2016
Cranmere Primary School, Esher, has been completely rebuilt to enable it to expand
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