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West Berkshire Council to invest £43M over the next three years on schools and education services West Berkshire Council plans to invest £43 million on new builds, expansion and improvement of schools as well as the refurbishment of education-related care facilities across the District in its Education Capital Programme for 2020-2023. This also includes provision for new equipment and services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Recent major successes include the £8.8 million site purchase and new build of Theale Primary School, refurbishment of the Castle Gate respite care home in Newbury (£128k), Hungerford Primary School kitchen expansion (£417k) and extensive repairs carried out at Falkland Primary School, Newbury (£474k). Projects scheduled for completion over the next six months include: • Highwood Copse, Newbury - new primary school (£7.7m) •
Winchcombe Primary School, Newbury - increased accommodation to cater for a greater number of pupils (£341k)
• Trinity Secondary School, Newbury - extension to the main school building to provide a new science classroom and larger two storey extension at the front to provide further additional classrooms (£2.3m) Additional projects scheduled for completion throughout 2021 - 2022 include: • 8
Parsons Down Partnership, Thatcham - bringing the junior and infant schools together into the same building to rationalise accommodation in line with pupil demand and improve financial efficiency. The project also includes
the renovation and expansion of outdoor play areas (£1.5m) •
The Willink School, Burghfield - expansion project to increase the size of the sports changing rooms (completed), build a new English studies block with seven classrooms and associated facilities, and refurbish several other rooms (£2.9m)
Following a successful funding bid by West Berkshire Council, a separate project is under construction by the Department for Education to erect a new £14.8 million building for Little Heath Secondary School in Tilehurst. Works are currently scheduled for completion by early 2021. Dominic Boeck, West Berkshire's Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, said: "We are pleased to announce our spending plans, new builds and other works underway for schools and education services for the benefit of students, teachers and carers. Our education capital programme for 2020-2023 reflects the various and diverse needs across West Berkshire. This includes creating more school spaces in certain areas and catering for pupils with special needs. "Although the onset of Covid-19 heavily impacted construction timetables over the past several months, we are now actively underway with progressing the rest of the projects scheduled for completion within the three year programme."
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Agencies working together to tackle workplace Covid-19 outbreak Agencies are working together to manage an outbreak of Covid-19 within a workplace in Newbury. In recent days a number of police officers from Thames Valley Police have tested positive for Covid-19. Those officers and a number of other people they have been in close contact with are now self-isolating in line with national guidelines. Agencies including West Berkshire Council and Public Health England are working with Thames Valley Police to ensure that appropriate steps are being taken to minimise the spread of the virus in line with our local outbreak control plan. When positive tests were first reported Thames Valley Police acted quickly to take the necessary precautions and working with NHS Test and Trace and partners informing anyone who had been in close contact to begin self-isolating. Matt Pearce, Head of Public Health for West Berkshire Council, said: "Nationally there has been an increase in cases of Covid-19 and we are likely to see more local cases and outbreaks over the coming months. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure that the necessary is action to reduce the spread of the virus."
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