TWO village schools in the Okehampton area are to benefit from a £1.3-million funding package for Devon schools to update antiquated equipment and install new facilities.

An efficient heating system will be put in at Exbourne Primary School making chilly classrooms a thing of the past ? and Spreyton School is getting a new staff/disabled toilet and staff room refurbishment.

Night storage heaters have been the only source of heating in the main building of the 63-pupil Exbourne School for the past ten years, but that is all set to change.

Headteacher Celia West said the £12,000 from Devon County Council?s Capital Challenge Programme was ?brilliant news? and it would be match-funded by the school.

?I applied last year for some money but was unsuccessful, so to get it this time is great,? she said.

?We will completely update the system which is totally inefficient at the moment.

?We will have an oil-fired central heating system which we can control, so it will be hot on cold days and visa-versa.?

Night storage heaters give out their main heat at night and there is no way of controlling them when the children come to school in the morning.

?If it is cold you cannot boost the heaters in the morning and at the other end of the scale we have had windows wide open during the day because the heaters have given out too much heat,? said Mrs West.

?We have had governors? meetings here in the evening when the secretary cannot take the minutes because her hands are freezing.?

The new heating system is likely to be installed during the summer holidays.

Spreyton Primary School has also received £4,500 to refurbish its staff room and provide a staff and disabled toilet.

Headteacher Cynthia Higbee said the staff room refurbishment would provide a bigger storage area and a kitchen and the new toilet would free up another part of the school to extend the entrance area.

?We would not have been able to carry out this work without this additional funding ? it is a great help,? she said.

The funding programme was the brainchild of Devon County Council?s executive councillor for schools John Hart, who wanted to commemorate the Queen?s Golden Jubilee in 2002.

He set up the fund to allow schools to carry out small-scale building works that would improve the quality of life for pupils and staff. But the response was so overwhelming that Mr Hart decided to continue the fund last year.

Schools were invited to bid for cash for specific projects which had already been highlighted as requiring action. Thirty-eight schools will benefit this year.