Anne Marie and new Minister of State for Education, Nick Gibb, had the pleasure of opening a new Maths and IT suite at Coombeshead Academy in Newton Abbot.
Headteacher Matthew Shanks was delighted to welcome Nick Gibb to this event, as the first appointment in his new role as Minister of State at the Department of Education. Anne Marie has long fought for improvements to local schools, particularly through her support for the f40 Campaign for Fairer Funding in Education, as well as her commitment to addressing the imbalance in funding to rural councils compared to urban areas.
Coombeshead Academy is the largest comprehensive school in Newton Abbot and specialises in mathematics and the arts. The new building includes ten classrooms, two ICT labs and offices, as well as service areas for the school. As a tribute to his contribution to computer science and the injustice that he faced, the new ICT suite has been named in honour of the late Alan Turing on a plaque that Anne Marie and Nick Gibb unveiled during the visit. Old computing equipment from the school will also be set to help communities in Ghana.
During speeches made to the children at the opening, Nick Gibb encouraged students to study maths, highlighting that people who study maths at A Level typically have the potential to earn 10% more than those who do not.