JOHN Kyrle High School and Sixth Form Centre in Ross-on-Wye will benefit from £2.3m to build a new science block to teach more students.

Herefordshire Council leaders agreed  proposals for the new permanent building at the Ledbury Road school at a meeting last week.

School leaders say they urgently need more space to accommodate extra pupils admitted from September 2021.

The Department for Education funding will be provided to John Kyrle High School to deliver a new science block which will provide extra classrooms and support spaces.

The project will be delivered and managed by the school and will allow its permanent expansion from seven forms of entry (210 pupils per year group) to eight forms of entry (240 pupils per year group.

Ceri Morgan,  education, development and skills assistant director at Herefordshire Council, said: “The plan is that the school grows by 30 students in each year group over the next three years.

“The good news about this is that it’s a slightly unusual way of doing it.

“Because of the urgency of the need for this school expansion we’ve actually agreed with the school that they will manage the build.

“They’ve done this successfully before in similar sized projects. There’s an approved contractor in place now who’s worked with the school before.

“The money has to be spent on this and there’s a reputational risk if the authority doesn’t actually spend it.

“We wouldn’t be granting the funding to the school, what we would be doing is paying the invoices as they came in.

“And because the school is managing the project for us, they run the risk of overspend – we don’t.

“The risk sits with the school and we’re confident they can do the work well.”

These proposals are subject to achieving planning permission being granted.