A PRIMARY school in Tilehurst will have major refurbishment work done after receiving £2.4 million government funding.

St Michael’s primary school, on Dee Road, is on the priority school building programme run by the Department for Education.

The programme is refurbishing school buildings in the ‘worst condition across the country’. The work will likely start this summer, and finish by Easter next year.

Councillor Jane Stanford-Beale (Con, Peppard) told Reading Borough Council’s planning committee: “I’m very pleased to see this building is finally being tackled, and good to hear they are going to try to start this summer holiday.”

The original 1950s school building will be refurbished on both the inside and the outside, including new windows and roofs.

The numbers of staff and pupils will not be changed, and the refurbishment is not to expand the school.

The school will use one temporary classroom building while the work takes place.  

Kate Parietti, the headteacher, said in a recent newsletter: “In the current climate, where funding is being cut, we are incredibly lucky to have been awarded this.”