Last updated at 20:04, Thursday, 31 May 2012

The head of Maryport’s Netherhall School hopes the school will still get much needed capital investment, despite missing out on two major Government funding schemes.

HOPEFUL: Netherhall head David Sibbit

David Sibbit said he expected more government funding to become available in the next two or three years.

He was speaking after news that Netherhall was not included in a county council bid for money from the Government’s new Priority School Building Programme.

The school had previously been due to get a £20 million revamp under a Building Schools for the Future programme, which was scrapped immediately after the 2010 general election.

Funding is needed to improve its buildings, some of which date back to the 1960s.

But Mr Sibbit said other funding opportunities were likely to arise in the near future.

In 2003 the school secured lottery funding to build its hugely successful community sport centre.

It is now looking into private investment opportunities, particularly to improve science and technology facilities.

Mr Sibbit said: “We are trying to prepare our youngsters to be ready for what our local employers need, which is predominantly science and technology based.”

He said the school was seeking opportunities to work with business and organisations like Britain’s Energy Coast, as well as pursuing local and national government funding.

Mr Sibbit said: “We’ll be looking at a mixture of public sector and private investment.

“We have just got to wait and see what happens from the point of view of future development over the next two or three years.”

He said the school was able to operate as it is in the meantime, and that performance was improving year on year.

Mr Sibbit will retire in August after being headteacher at Netherhall School for 15 years.

He was sure that new headteacher Jonathan Johnson would continue to push for funding to improve the school.

First published at 19:23, Thursday, 31 May 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk