A SCHOOL has been given financial support to provide pupils with more space to protect them from the risk of catching coronavirus.

Cestria Primary School, the largest school in Chester-le-Street, had the challenge of safely welcoming back 420 children on a school site that has little open space.

Durham County Councillors Paul Sexton, Beatty Bainbridge and Alan Bainbridge stepped in to support the school by jointly contributing £3,485 to support the purchasing of signage, fencing and barriers, sanitising units and sanitiser.

Councillor Paul Sexton said: “The project directly supported the 420 school children and 60 staff but the benefits go beyond the school.

“The staff and children are from our community and by helping to keep them safe, we are helping to keep our community safe.”

Headteacher Lorraine Gowland said: “We are so grateful for this additional funding which has helped us to get our children back to school safely.

“Without this funding we would have had to cut costs elsewhere in our budget and this would have been very difficult at this challenging time.

“The children are so happy to back with their classmates and this equipment has really helped to make this possible.”