New school and hundreds of school places on way for Sandwell after £6.6 million investment

A total of 700 spaces will be created through extensions of existing schools and the development of a new primary in Smethwick.

Sandwell Council leader Steve Eling said: "There has been an unprecedented growth in the birth rate over recent years but this has started to ease, however, we still have a high demand for school places. We are meeting that demand with this investment."

The council money from its capital funding programme will be released over the next two years and the extensions work is expected to be completed by the end of 2018.

Smethwick is the borough with the highest demand. The new free school called Shireland High Tech Primary will create 420 places.

The council is supporting the Government's Education Funding Agency to build Shireland High Tech Primary School while the agency identifies an exact site for the school.

Proposals have been made to build a new eight-classroom teaching block for St Matthew's CE Primary School in Smethwick. The site would be situated on Windmill Lane.

Meanwhile Crocketts Community and St Gregory's Catholic primary schools in the town, alongside Lyng Primary School in West Bromwich, would also see classroom extensions.

Projects to refurbish Reddal Hill Primary School, in Cradley Heath, and Summerhill Primary School in Tipton, would also be completed under the new plans.

A report before cabinet said it was also currently projected that an additional 3,845 places will be needed in secondary schools in Sandwell by September 2025.

Councillor Eling said: "Over the last six years we have provided more than 4,400 new primary places and we have an excellent record of providing these in good or outstanding schools.

"We are already preparing for increased demand in our secondary schools as higher numbers from the primary sector move up.

"A good example of this is the recent building and opening of Q3 Academy Langley, a building project managed by the council to provide additional places."

The Q3 Academy Langley, off Moat Road in Oldbury, was the first new secondary school to built in a decade. School bosses said it will have more than 1,500 pupils by 2023.