Pupils at Sonning Common Primary School are set to benefit from environmentally friendly classrooms after successfully applying for a schools energy efficiency loan from Oxfordshire County Council.

The county council has been running the interest free loan scheme since July 2023 to help maintained schools reduce their overall energy usage, which in turn could help cut operational costs.

The school applied to the council for just under £12,000, out of an £800,000 fund, to finance the classroom installation of photovoltaic (PV) technology, which is designed to convert sunlight into electrical energy.

Councillor John Howson, Oxfordshire County Council Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Young People’s Services, said: “We’ve already carried out 50 energy efficiency audits on our council maintained schools. The latest round of the loan scheme was launched earlier this year, with Sonning Common Primary School being the second to make use of the fund, after Nettlebed Community School.”

The school hopes to install the photovoltaic (PV) technology during the summer break in readiness for the new term in September.

Chris Hirst, Headteacher at Sonning Common Primary School, said: “We are thrilled to be able to add to our existing solar PV array. This most recent addition will help us to reduce our carbon footprint even more and will help us on our journey to become net carbon zero. We are proud to be playing our part and hope that other schools will follow to install renewable technologies.”

Other schools are applying for energy efficiency loans and details of their plans will be released in coming months.

Action on Carbon and Energy in Schools (ACES), an energy efficiency support service, funded by Oxfordshire County Council and delivered by Oxford Brookes University and Low Carbon Hub, has been supporting schools with applying for the loan.

If you’d like to register your interest in future funding schemes, please fill out this simple form.