More than half of schools seeking building replacements or repairs will not get cash under prime minister Boris Johnson’s flagship rebuilding programme. The Department for Education plans to support 500 projects over a decade, but revealed today 1,105 schools had applied during a four-week application window earlier this year. It means 54.8 per cent of applicants are likely to miss out. The DfE has previously admitted £11.4 billion of repairs are needed across England. New education secretary James Cleverly confirmed another 61 successful applicants today (full list below), with officials suggesting work will begin “immediately”. Other schools left waiting to hear on funding The first 100 were unveiled last year. The DfE had previously planned to reveal the “majority” of the remaining 400 in this third round. But today’s announcement appears to have been fast-tracked, in Cleverly’s first major announcement as a cabinet minister in Johnson’s caretaker government. “as soon as possible”. It said up to 300 more successful applicants would be announced “provisionally” by the end of this financial year, subject to due diligence. “We are still assessing all other nominations received and have not ruled out any nominated schools from selection at this point.” At least 39 schools will therefore have to wait until 2023 at the earliest to find out if they have been successful, despite selection being based partly on site information the department has held since it surveyed buildings between 2017 and 2019. The DfE also said earlier this year projects will only “enter delivery at a rate of 50 per year”. Schools had to show ‘severe need’ Schools had to show they had at least 1200 square metres of “severe condition need” to apply. The government has said it prioritised applications with “structural or safety issues that mean a block is not fit for use or is likely to become unfit for use imminently because it poses a risk to users”. Second priority were applications showing “severe deterioration” in external walls, roofs, windows or doors. Third were mechanical and electrical systems “close to failure” which could force block closure in the near-future, but only if schools had other needs that made refurbishments or rebuilds “most efficient”. A DfE spokesperson said the plans would “transform education for thousands of pupils”, with sports halls, music rooms, science labs and dining areas among areas receiving investment. Cleverly said the programme was already “creating greener school sites that are fit for the future”, with promises that new buildings will be net-zero carbon when “in operation”. Framwellgate School Durham is among the successful applicants unveiled today. Its head Andy Byers has regularly spoken out about the condition of the school since a planned rebuild was ditched in 2010, when the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat government scrapped its Labour predecessors’ “Building Schools for the Future” programme. He said he was “absolutely delighted”, calling his 1960s-built site “old and tired and very poorly designed”. One in 13 schools built before 1900 The DfE’s analysis found eight per cent of the school estate comprises blocks built before 1900, while 9 per cent is made up of blocks dating back to the first half of the 20th century. The rest of the school estate comprises blocks built in the 1950s (7 per cent), 1960s (15 per cent), 1970s (13 per cent), 1980s (8 per cent), 1990s (10 per cent), the noughties (15 per cent). A final 15 per cent comprise buildings from between 2011 and 2020. Schools Week revealed last month almost a third of schools’ buildings include materials either at the end of their shelf life or that pose a “serious risk of imminent failure”. The latest 61 schools unveiled Birmingham Four Oaks Primary School New Oscott Primary School Welsh House Farm Community School and Special Needs Resources Base Bradford Ilkley Grammar School Brent Malorees Junior School Cheshire West and Chester Upton-by-Chester High School County Durham Ferryhill Station Primary School Framwellgate School Durham St Leonard’s Catholic School Croydon Thomas More Catholic School Darlington Polam Hall School Derby Becket Primary School Pear Tree Infant School Derbyshire Friesland School Newhall Community Junior School Ealing Northolt High School Enfield Chace Community School Enfield Grammar School Essex Helena Romanes School St Mark’s West Essex Catholic School Gateshead St Joseph’s Catholic Junior School, Birtley Hammersmith and Fulham William Morris Sixth Form Hertfordshire Beaumont School Haileybury Turnford Laureate Academy St Cuthbert Mayne Catholic Junior School St John Catholic Primary School Woodside Primary School Hounslow Rivers Academy West London Kirklees Co-op Academy Smithies Moor Gomersal St Mary’s Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Lancashire Lostock Hall Moor Hey School Penwortham Girls’ High School Wellfield Academy Lincolnshire University Academy Long Sutton Liverpool St Anne’s (Stanley) Junior Mixed and Infant School Newcastle Upon Tyne Benton Park Primary School Norfolk Sacred Heart Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School Sidestrand Hall School The Hewett Academy, Norwich Weasenham Church of England Primary Academy North Tyneside Wellfield Middle School Northumberland Cramlington Learning Village Nottinghamshire Broomhill Junior School Oxfordshire Gosford Hill School Rotherham Wales High School Sefton Lydiate Primary School Savio Salesian College Sheffield Brunswick Community Primary School Staffordshire Brindley Heath Junior School Academy Stockport Thorn Grove Primary School Suffolk Ormiston Sudbury Academy Sunderland St Aidan’s Catholic Academy St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, Ryhope Waltham Forest Chingford Foundation School Warrington Penketh High School West Sussex Holy Trinity CofE Secondary School, Crawley Steyning Grammar School Wirral Riverside Primary School The Mosslands School York Tang Hall Primary Academy