A SECOND primary school in Portishead is set to expand to meet the growing demand for pupil places in September.
St Peter’s Primary School will install a temporary classroom to allow its new reception intake for the 2011/2012 school year to rise from 60 to 90.
The Local Education Authority has announced it will exercise its right to breach normal admission arrangements in order to prevent children having to attend schools outside the town and is allocating additional new school places over and above those it published would be available.
The authority says the move is necessary, despite the expansion of Trinity Primary School in the town, which will be complete by September.
The majority of the work to install a temporary building at St Peter’s will be carried out during the summer holidays.
Parents of children already at the Hallett’s Way school say they are concerned the school is not designed to accommodate the swelling pupil numbers, which could rise to 450.
They say facilities like the school hall, dining services, the staff room and parking areas are already stretched to the limit.
In a letter to parents, headteacher Sharon Roberts said: “Inevitably this will mean some changes in the way we do things, but I am sure we will be able to accommodate these additional children and still ensure that everyone continues to have the same quality of education from St Peter’s.”
The closure of St Barnabas Primary School in Portishead’s West Hill in 2009 because of a falling roll, caused a public outcry.
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