CHILDREN using the breakfast and after school clubs at Portishead Primary School are having to use a hall for their activities after plans for a temporary classroom failed to materialise.

Two of the three primary schools in the town due to expand this summer have had work successfully completed, but drainage issues have prevented the installation of a new classroom at the Station Road school.

Headteacher Mike Scriven said: “Investigations earlier in the year uncovered the fact that the main drains run under the site allocated for the proposed demountable classroom and so procedures were halted.

“We have a meeting with North Somerset Council this week to re-evaluate the situation and work out a way to move forward.”

Portishead Primary and St Peter’s schools were instructed by the Local Education Authority to increase their intake of reception children from the usual 60 to 90 this year, in a bid to accommodate the rising demand for school places in Portishead.

St Peter’s children have settled into a spacious new classroom, complete with cloakroom facilities and air conditioning.

At Portishead Primary however, the small hall, previously used for the breakfast and after school clubs, has been transformed into a classroom to accommodate the extra children, leaving members of the clubs using the temporary arrangement in the main hall.

Meanwhile, pupils at Trinity Primary School in The Village Quarter are said to be delighted with their new building. The expansion completed during the summer break has provided seven new classrooms and two group rooms at the Marjoram Way school.

Headteacher Karen Sancto said: “After three years of being open it is a real celebration to have all the building work at the school complete.”

The school now has a capacity for 420 children with two classes in each year group and a 60-place nursery.

Mrs Sancto added: “We are indebted to the support we continue to receive from our church friends. Our foundation (church) governors have been instrumental in developing the strategic vision here and we feel doubly blessed having both our Anglican and Methodist churches as part of our school.”