A Wiltshire primary school plans to build a brand new education centre after benefitting from £6 million of funding from Dyson.
The James Dyson Foundation has pledged the huge donation to Malmesbury Church of England Primary School on the condition it receives approval for their expansion plans.
The money will be spent on a new Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths (STEAM) centre.
This would see the teaching of these subjects combined into one centre, in order to show pupils how knowledge gained from one discipline can be used in another.
The school also has plans for seven new classrooms and a school hall. In total, the development could see a 50 per cent increase of the student population.
Headteacher Steve Neal said: “Malmesbury C of E Primary School is thrilled to have the James Dyson Foundation’s support to expand our school so that we can meet the growing needs of the town and bring wonderful new learning opportunities to all our pupils.
“We hope we will receive approval from the Regional Department for Education allowing us to unlock this generous donation and deliver an inspiring building.
“It will contain specialised facilities for STEAM education as well as accommodating increased numbers of pupils, and potentially sharing the facilities with children from other schools.
“The level of support we would receive from the James Dyson Foundation is unprecedented in the state primary sector.”
The school is currently at full capacity and unable to provide for the town’s growing population.
It hopes to expand in order to offer every child in the area a place, so they do not have to travel to surrounding villages.
The James Dyson Foundation says any expansion would see the school acquire land from a neighbouring housing development free of charge.
Sir James Dyson, whose Dyson Malmesbury campus is less than a mile from the school, added: “Dyson has grown in Malmesbury for the past 30 years and many of our engineers either studied at Malmesbury School themselves or have their own children there now.
“We have long supported the school and simultaneously been on a mission to inspire more engineers all around the world.
“The creation of a new STEAM centre, right here in Malmesbury, will enable the school to be a pioneer for this age range, encouraging problem-solving and hopefully long lives as engineers.”
Around a quarter of the school’s pupils have parents working for Dyson.
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