THE BOROUGH is set to pump millions of pounds into providing more school places for students facing issues.

Cabinet has approved £18.75 million in capital funding to provide more than 200 new Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) school places in Slough.

PRU's provide education for children who are excluded, sick, or otherwise unable to attend school.

The funding phase of the SEN and PRU expansion programme was approved by cabinet in a meeting on Monday.

More than £5 million of the funding will be spent on refurbishing and extending Haybrook College, in Burnham Lane, Burnham and also adding a new hospitality and catering facility.

A further £13 million will be spent on new SEN units at Priory School, in Orchard Avenue, Slough, and Marish Academy, in Swabey Road, Langley.

This chunk of the funding will also be used to add a new annex to the Arbour Vale School site in Farnham Road, Slough.

Councillor Sabia Hussain, commissioner for education, said: “We want our children and young people to have the best possible start in life and opportunities to give them positive lives.

“Slough has some of the best schools in the country with results regularly in the top 10 and this funding will build on this success for even more of our vulnerable pupils.”

She added: “These expansions will provide additional SEN and PRU places to meet the rising demand and will mean fewer pupils are placed outside of the borough.”

The work will be carried out by Slough Urban Renewal, who are already delivering a £22 million primary school expansion project that should provide 840 new places across three schools.

In February the council also approved secondary school expansion plans for Wexham School and Westgate School, and is set to invest at least £20million in the project.