MORE than £4 million is being invested in Court Fields School to prevent Wellington pupils having to be bussed to other schools.

Dozens of children in the town are currently being sent to Kingsmead Academy, in Wiveliscombe, because Court Fields is bursting at the seams and cannot take them.

And that is before another 1,500-plus planned homes are built in Wellington in the next few years.

Now, Somerset Council is to spend up to £4.5 million across the next three years on extra teaching and accommodation for Court Fields to allow a massive expansion.

The school currently has 874 on its roll and under the new plans this would increase by 176 to 1,050.

Wellington town and Somerset Cllr Andrew Govier, who works in Court Fields, told councillors last week how the school was turning away pupils of families who lived locally because it simply did not have room for them.

Cllr Govier said the numbers being forced to go to Wiveliscombe were probably ‘in the 10s rather than the hundreds’.

He accepted it was not a satisfactory situation and was causing upset for families who wanted their children educated locally.

The new investment will be funded with a £3.2 million Department for Education grant and £1.3 million from housing developers.

Council education director Claire Winter said: “Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure there are enough high-quality school places locally to meet demand.

“Somerset Council has a ‘Local First’ approach to planning education places.

“The aim is for all children to be educated in their community and so it is essential there are sufficient education places in the communities where they are needed.

“This approach has the secondary benefit of reducing the financial cost of transporting children to education provision if there are no places at a school within statutory walking distance.”