Millions in investment to unlock 300-place high school expansion in Suffolk
£4.8 million is going into the expansion of Stowmarket High School
A Suffolk high school will be expanded to welcome 300 extra students after a council agreed to invest millions into the project.
Mid-Suffolk cabinet members met this morning to discuss investing £4.8 million of its Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) pot into the expansion of Stowmarket High School, in Onehouse Road.
CIL money is made up of developer contributions paid to councils for investment in local services.
Cllr Andrew Stringer, who proposed the investment, said the council recognised how critical the funding would be to address growing need.
He said: “It will make a huge difference to hundreds of students and their families in the coming years.
“However, this is only part of the picture – we also want to make sure there is funding there for other schools in future when they need to expand.”
Suffolk County Council, which is contributing £1.6 million to the project, estimates the school requires up to 200 extra places by as early as next year due to the amount of development in and around Stowmarket, with a further 100 needed by 2029.
A further £3.5 million has been secured through a separate pot of legally-binding financial contributions by developers.
The expansion will take the school’s total places to 1,200 by the 2029 deadline and cost just under £10 million in total, amounting to more than £33,000 per pupil.
A spokesperson for Suffolk County Council said the authority was pleased to have been able to work with Mid Suffolk on the investment bid, with work expected to begin in the autumn and finish ahead of the school term in August 2026.
The plans, which got county council approval from planners yesterday, will see the creation of a new standalone classroom block with a hall, up to 11 classrooms, a reflection room and staff and administration areas.
Meanwhile, the existing sixth form block, which closed prior to the school being rebuilt by the Department for Education in 2020, will be turned into two music classrooms, five practice rooms and storage areas.
To accommodate the extra students, the kitchen area will be expanded and the hall will be remodelled into an additional dining hall with a drama classroom.
Other works include remodelling the existing utility areas into a new hygiene room and the current music room into a new ICT classroom.
Overall, the council believes this will mean the creation of new and better facilities, accessible and beneficial to school pupils and the wider community.
The funding was approved unanimously.