Maria Miller visited Oakridge Infants school to meet staff and pupils - just one of Basingstoke's popular primary schools getting the money needed to meet the demand for new places.

Maria said, "Oakridge is just one of Basingstoke's outstanding primary schools expanding to meet the demand for places. At Oakridge nearly £4million is being spent to create 210 new school places by the end of 2018. Overall Basingstoke is receiving 
record levels of investment to expand, with more than £33million being spent by 2019, including a brand new school at Rooksdown. 

" Most important of all, children's progress at Basingstoke Primary Schools has shown remarkable improvement, outstripping national levels. Now more than 90% of Basingstoke Primary Schools are rated good or outstanding by OFSTED because of the hard work of staff. 
 
"This is the investment Basingstoke needs to meet the needs of our expanding population; investment that is only available from Government because of our strong and stable economy."