The contracts for the Department for Education will be worth in the region of £28m and will be constructed using a Yorkon off-site solution.

This latest schools deal comes just over a month after Portakabin signed the UK largest off-site construction deal worth £44m to deliver an innovative three-school campus for Barking and Dagenham Council in East London.

The firm hailed this as a tipping point for the schools sector.

A spokesperson from the EFA said: “There was very strong competition in the off-site sector for this batch of projects and the modular market has clearly risen to the challenge with more advanced technical solutions. We looked closely at design, cost, experience and management.”

Simon Ambler, Director of the Portakabin Group, “This is another milestone for the Portakabin Group and for the off-site sector.

“The opportunity for off-site construction to help transform the learning environment for thousands of pupils and their teachers under the Priority School Building Programme is immense.”

Three of the seven projects identified in the Surrey and Kent batch are now in the design stages.

The first to start on site will be Pyrford Church of England Primary School in Woking.  A £5m 2FE primary school with two ‘bulge’ classrooms will be constructed to accommodate 480 children from the start of the 2016/17 academic year.

It will replace the existing single-storey school which will then be demolished.

Pyrford is a complex site which will include the retention of an existing children’s centre and nursery. The design of the new two-storey building will significantly increase the external space and access for outdoor play and learning, and high levels of natural light will provide a welcoming and bright internal environment for teaching.