Surrey’s school children returned from their summer holiday to schools with extra classroom space for 2,800 children - the equivalent of 7 new large primary schools!

Plans have also been unveiled by Surrey County Council to create more than 3,000 new school places in the next year, as part of the biggest investment programme in Surrey’s history.

It will see 16,000 extra places provided by 2018 to meet an increase in demand fuelled by a 20% rise in birth rates.

Linda Kemeny, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Learning, said: “We’ve experienced a huge rise in demand for places at our high-quality schools and this surge is continuing, which is why we embarked on the biggest school expansion programme Surrey’s ever seen with more than £350 million being invested in creating the 16,000 places we need to find. By next September, almost 6,000 of those places will have been provided and we’ll continue to work on plans for the rest so that we ensure every child gets the best possible start in life.”

The news comes after a recent Ofsted report which confirmed that many more Surrey schools are now classified as Good or Outstanding.