Kirkby school celebrates £750,000 expansion

Nottinghamshire County Council spent nearly £750,000 last year building three additional classrooms at Kingsway Primary School in response to increased demand for places at the school.

This project is just one of many in the area to benefit from a share of almost £70m of government money the County Council has invested since September 2013 to create more than 5,500 new school places.

The plan is that a further 400 new school places, costing £5m, should also be ready for this September.

Chairman of the children’s and young people’s committee, councillor John Peck will be given a tour of the new classrooms on Monday. He said: “Although what goes on inside school buildings is the most important factor in education, these new classrooms will go a long way towards improving the learning environment for the children and staff.

“We work extremely hard responding to demand for more schools places in areas where schools are popular so that as many parents as possible can get their child into their first preference school. And this £750,000 project is another example of this.”

The extra classrooms at Kingsway, which were ready in time for the new starters coming in last September, mean the school can now accommodate 60 children in each year group rather than 45, increasing capacity by 105 places overall, making it a 420-place school.

Kingsway’s headteacher Samantha Bradbury said: “The new building is a fantastic addition providing much needed additional classroom space for our growing school community. This will support us in meeting the increasing demand for places and enable more children in our local area to experience our special ‘Kingsway’ education as recently recognised by Ofsted.

“This project also provided children with a unique experience to closely observe each part of the construction process and we were all amazed to see just how quickly the new building was completed.

“Staff and children have been keen to spend time in the new classroom and have enjoyed the light and spacious learning environment and the new interactive boards.

“Thank you also to parents and carers for their patience throughout the project.”

Coun Peck added: “As a council, we wouldn’t have been able to fund this project, so the cash is a tremendous opportunity to continue our investment in our children’s futures which includes the school expansions work we’re currently undertaking to respond to an increase in demand for school places in certain areas across Nottinghamshire.

“In the Mansfield and Ashfield areas alone, we also created extra school places ready for last September at Broomhill Junior, Mapplewells and Crescent Primary Schools.

“And we’re currently undertaking substantial expansion projects at Sutton Road, King Edward, Abbey Hill and Farmilo Primaries which are due to complete over the next few months.”

Those attending on Monday will be treated to a tour of the school, presentation and singing by the pupils, and Coun Woodhead will cut a ribbon to make the official opening of the new classrooms.