A Harold Hill Infant School has a received a £65,000 grant from the Government to help fund its new nursery project.

St Ursula's Roman Catholic school, Straight Road has been awarded £65,000 that will contribute to the project with work set to begin during the summer break. The cost of the work is set to exceed £280,000.

When the new building, which includes a covered section of playground, has been completed, it will cater for up to 60 children from the age of two-and-a-half to four.

Chairman of governors at the school, Paul McGeary said: "We have been campaigning for this scheme for 10 years now and parents and governors have worked very hard to make this happen.

"This will be the first Catholic school to have a nursery in the area and we feel it's very important to get children into learning as early as possible.

"We got the go ahead for the plans about 18 months or two years ago and we were delighted to hear the grant had been agreed.

"Work begins during the summer holiday and we hope it will be finished by Easter 2001. Up to 60 children will be able to come to the school, 30 each morning and a further 30 each afternoon."

A Havering Council spokesman said: "The Government invited bids from the council on behalf of all voluntary aided schools for additional funding for projects. This was from a new fund of £16m nationally.

"Havering submitted 10 bids, of which three were successful. One was a funding contribution to support agreed council funding for the St Ursula's Infant School nursery project."

A second project for the St Ursula Junior School to provide an enclosed link to a separate demountable room used for library and resource needs was not successful. The school will be able to bid for this grant again next year.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.