Eight school building projects worth over £270m have moved to the construction phase after the Department for Education signed off contracts for the latest batch of rebuild and refurbishment contracts.

Kier landed the biggest job — a £69m rebuild of Upton-by-Chester High School — underlining its strong pipeline across the DfE’s School Rebuilding Programme.

Tilbury Douglas secured a trio of wins worth just over £74m for Pershore High School, Applebee Wood Community Specialist School, and East Durham College.

800-pupil Gosford Hill secondary school to the north of Oxford

Bowmer & Kirkland picked up the £44m Gosford Hill School job in Oxfordshire, while Willmott Dixon signed a £35m deal for Barnes School and Hospital on south west London.

Modular specialist Reds10 also joined the winners’ list with a £20m SEND school in Suffolk.

The projects will now move into delivery through the DfE’s regional construction frameworks covering all nine English regions.