Southsea school celebrating after clinching more than £1m towards major upgrade

Craneswater Juniors in St Ronan’s Road, Southsea, has been given the cash by Portsmouth City Council so it can build an extension and cater for more students.

A specialist ‘pod’ will be created to teach aspiring musicians and existing classrooms will be revamped and get better sound-proofing.

The school currently takes 390 children, up from 360 last year, and that will rise to 480 over the next few years.

It comes after the city council said it was putting £4.7m from its capital budget into the transformation of schools, to provide more places for students and improve their learning.

The money for Craneswater Juniors follows the decision to award Moorings Way Infant School in Milton £592,000 to upgrade its classrooms so they are separated and no longer open-plan.

Craneswater Juniors headteacher David Jones is delighted.

He said: ‘We have been oversubscribed, and the numbers locally are rising, so it’s important that we are offering local families the choice to bring their children here.

‘What’s exciting about the new build is it’s being done very carefully.

‘A lot of thought has been put into it.

‘So there will be a lot of high quality classrooms and improvements in the teaching environment.

‘It will add to the city’s efforts to improve education. The council has been working with us very closely on this.

‘There will be major modifications which we wouldn’t have been able to do without this support.

‘About 120 of our children learn musical instruments so they will have access to the new music teaching facility.

Mr Jones added: ‘The sound-proofing will be beneficial as we are a big, listed building with high ceilings and it can echo a bit.

‘The classroom atmosphere will be calmer.’