The  Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, has welcomed the new or refurbished schools opening this month.

September will see 400 new or refurbished schools opening their doors for a new term – including the new City Academy in Hackney which the Prime Minister opened this morning.

These schools make up part of the almost 4000 schools built, rebuilt or refurbished by Labour since 1997 – the biggest sustained period of school building for decades.

Ed Balls also announced changes to the Academies system – dropping the £2m sponsorship requirement to allow more schools to benefit from a wider range of sponsors.

Labour’s Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, said:

“We’ve swept away the historic legacy of under-funded and under-resourced schools thanks to our sustained, record capital investment programme over the last decade.

“A world-class education system needs world-class facilities – that’s exactly what we are delivering. This is the largest sustained capital investment in schools for decades – giving parents, teachers and pupils outstanding classroom, music and sports facilities; transforming their aspirations; and driving up standards.

”Schools in England have had the biggest sustained investment in facilities for decades – with an eightfold real terms rise between 1997 and 2011 alone. Around 4,000 schools and tens of thousands of classrooms have been newly built, rebuilt or largely refurbished thanks to our £53 billion of capital investment over the last 12 years.

“There are now 121 BSF schools open, with the first Primary Capital Programme schools open this term on top of a decade of local authority-run building projects and the expanding Academy programme – and we are committed to rebuilding or refurbishing the entire secondary school estate and half of all primary schools.”