Education is the dominant theme

I was delighted to welcome children from Barrowford Primary, Wheatley Lane Primary and Gisburn Road Primary to Parliament. I was also able to take the children from Barrowford and Wheatley Lane for photos outside 10 Downing Street.

Little did I expect as I was chatting to the fantastic Barrowford headteacher Rachel Tomlinson that a letter from her school would go viral and be read by people all over the world!

I was pleased to visit Reedley Primary School for an update on the building work at the school, which is being expanded to take 330 pupils, up from 270 previously.

This expansion is happening at the same time as we are seeing three other Pendle primary schools benefiting from brand new school buildings – a new £5million Barnoldswick Church School which has just been completed, a new £6.1million St Paul’s Church of England School in Nelson and a new £8million Whitefield Infants School in Nelson, all of which are due to open in September.

All of this, and the new school for Laneshaw Bridge Primary which has already opened, has only been possible thanks to the Government more than doubling the funding for new school places.

These four new schools, along with expansions of others and the £6.2million investment currently being made at West Craven High Technology College, represent a capital investment of over £30million in our local schools.

Crucially these new buildings are not being delivered using PFI contracts, they have been fully paid for and will not saddle taxpayers will large bills to private companies.

There are many others that need improvements or wish to expand, but these four new school buildings show the significant investment currently being made in education across Pendle.