A MULTI-MILLION pound grant will allow a school to operate from two sites instead of three.

The £3.5m government grant will pay for a new 13-classroom block so King Alfred’s Academy can move from three sites to two.

The Educational Funding Agency (EFA) grant will fund a £4m restaurant and classroom block on the Wantage school’s Centre Site in Portway.

The block is part of a £12m improvement project at the site, which also includes a new £3m science block and a £4m sixth form block.

New buildings will allow the 1,800-student academy to take new pupils from 5,500 new homes due to be built in Wantage and Grove by 2031.

The school has said the Portway site improvements would allow it to close its East site on Springfield Road and move to a two-site operation.

Headteacher Simon Spiers said: “This is an important step towards realising our vision to rebuild Centre Site and give our students, staff and local community the outstanding facilities that will underpin the outstanding teaching and learning that goes on here.

“We are all very excited about this new £4m development for the academy, which is the first significant new-build project for many years.

“It is part of the overall plan to revamp Centre Site and then, ultimately, to move from three sites to two.”

The funding from the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund brings the total granted to King Alfred’s in the last two years to £4.7m.

This has enabled the academy to update classrooms on East Site, make improvements to the science block on West Site on Challow Road and refurbish its creative arts facilities in the £750,000 Christopher Loyd Building on Centre Site, opened by the Earl of Wessex on April 25.

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