St John’s CofE Primary School in Wellington is about to get bigger – and at the same time solve a problem for primary education in the town.

Work will start in April on a new classroom for the school – rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and ‘outstanding’ by Church of England inspectors.

The new classroom will accommodate 25 reception age children – four-five year olds – who will start in September this year.

The new build has been commissioned because plans for a new primary school in Wellington have been delayed by a year. That meant the town would not have enough places for children needing to start school in September.

St John’s says it will be taking one extra class this year only – and in following years its annual intake will return to 25 children.

But children in the new intake will have the opportunity to stay with the school throughout their primary education.

Head teacher Olly Priestley, who has written to parents to explain the development, said today: “It’s important for these children that their education is not disrupted. The aim is to nurture them here through their first seven years of education.

“It is clear Wellington has a problem right now with the number of primary school places and we were thrilled when St John’s was chosen to host this new class.”?

The Department for Education is fully meeting the cost of the project and Somerset County Council is managing the build. The main contractor is Kier Services Cardiff and the design team is Kendall Kingscott.

Mr Priestley added: “There is bound to be an element of disruption while the building work is taking place and we would ask parents to bear with us. But these are exciting times for the school.”

The Isambard Kingdom Brunel (IKB) Primary School on the Longforth Farm estate on the edge of Wellington is planned to open in September 2020 and when fully up and running will have 420 pupils.