The rebuilding of Tipton St John Primary School has been given ‘Group one' priority status as part of the Department for Education’s School Rebuilding Programme.

The Department for Education, Diocese of Exeter, Devon County Council and the local school leadership team along with Simon Jupp all agree that a new school to be built due to the risk of flooding which led to children and staff being evacuated by the fire service in May.

The school being given Group one status, reserved for urgent cases by the government, now prioritises the project.

In December, the Department for Education confirmed the necessary funding to build the school in a safe location would come from the government’s School Rebuilding Programme after a long campaign by the MP. Since then, Simon Jupp MP has also held urgent meetings with Education Minister Baroness Barran following May’s flooding incident and raised the school’s plight in Parliament with Schools Minister Nick Gibb MP.

Simon Jupp, MP for East Devon, said; "I have been calling for this decision since the Conservative government agreed to fund the building of a new school in December. I have raised the urgency of the situation in Parliament, met with Ministers several times, and successfully secured a visit from the Department for Education last month to look at potential sites. This is another great step forward to build a new state-of-the-art school in a safe location.”