St Peter’s has three ‘temporary’ classrooms that are over forty years old and have been at the school for half of that time. One of these classrooms was recently featured on a BBC Panorama expose on Britain’s crumbling schools, as an example of where, often in the winter, children had to wear coats and scarfs in order to work.

However, with the huge reduction of government investment in school buildings, we have been told that St Peter's will not be considered for new classrooms.

Since being featured on Panorama there has been a wave of support and a real desire to make things better. There are three ways you can help.

1. Participate in our ‘Community Challenge’: Where we are asking our pupils, and anyone who would like to support the school to complete a sponsored activity. More information will be released soon.

2. Donate to our renovation appeal: We are asking our local community of parents, relatives, alumni, residents, local businesses, and charities to make any donation they can to our fund. We have three key milestones we need to reach:

£3,790 will fund a new energy efficient Heat Pump & AC unit for a classroom. We would like to get two more.

£700k would mean we could replace two classrooms completely.

You can donate to our Just Giving page by clicking https://www.justgiving.com/stpeter-pta

3. Sign our petition: We are also asking if everyone could sign and share our petition so that ALL schools can get the investment they need. You can sign the ‘Increase Funding for Maintenance of School Buildings and Building New Schools Petition’ here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/655368

Already, St Peter’s has benefited from the generosity of Pied Piper AC, who have donated a free energy efficient Heat Pump & AC unit to the school.

Steve Hitchcock, headteacher, said: “We are indebted to the kindness of Gareth and the Pied Piper team for supplying and fitting the Heat Pump & AC unit for free. The children and staff were so pleased. It will not only provide better working conditions in the winter and summer but save us money on energy too.”

Gareth Marshall, Executive Director - Pied Piper AC, said: “We sadly know only too well how extreme temperatures affect the learning experience in our classrooms, so it gave us great pleasure to be able to support St Peter’s with a fully installed Air Conditioning solution. This new Midea System will significantly reduce their energy bills, cut the school’s carbon footprint and, most importantly, improve the quality of learning for generations of pupils”.

You can check them out at www.piedpiperac.com or call 01304 824194.