A new £3.35 million project to expand Mellers Primary School has been given the green light.
Work on the Radford school will see places increase from 210 to 420 to meet the growing pupil numbers in the area.
The council’s Executive Board gave the plans the go ahead at a meeting yesterday (Tuesday 17 May).
The plans include eight new classrooms and a new hall. The nursery is also expanding from 26 to 52 places.
Work on the Norton Street site is set to start in August 2016 and the new facilities will open to pupils in September 2017.
As part of Nottingham City Council’s ambitious expansion plan, since 2009 an extra 2,085 places have been created. The council has invested more than £33 million in its school expansion programme; this will create a total of over 4000 additional primary school places over the period of expansion, once all year groups are full.
Councillor Sam Webster, Portfolio Holder for Education, Employment and Skills, said: “The City Council has taken bold and decisive action to ensure that there are enough primary school places to meet the current and future demand.
“This year we were able to offer every Nottingham child a school place and expansion projects like Mellers Primary mean we can ensure every child has a place in the years to come.
“The government has prevented us from building new schools, so we have to expand the ones we already have in order to meet future demand.
“The Council’s expansion strategy will ensure that every child and young person has access to the very best facilities in order to help them to succeed and reach their full potential. We must ensure that all children have the opportunity to access high quality teaching and learning. Residents in Nottingham want good schools, with places available, close to home.”
Amanda Dawson, Headteacher at Mellers Primary School, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled that the Mellers expansion has been given the ‘go-ahead’ by the council’s executive board.
“Mellers is very heavily oversubscribed, and a very popular school in the area, which means that each year, too many of our parents and families are disappointed as they don’t get the school places they wanted at Mellers, so we’re very pleased to be able to offer double the number of school places from September 2017, as this will enable our parents’ school choices to be accommodated. Exciting times for Mellers!”
Work has been ongoing to increase capacity at primary schools across the City, with most of the work already finished.
The most recent completed project was the opening of the new £5.3m Heathfield Primary School last October. The school in Basford was split into two sites creating an additional 420 places, plus 52 nursery places.
Expansion work has already been completed across the city, benefitting communities in areas like the Meadows, Basford, St Ann’s and Aspley. For the academic year starting in September 2016, 292 extra school places have been created in the city.
Further parts of the City will benefit from the school expansion programme. In 2016, new places for children will be created at schools in Sneinton, Wilford and Wollaton.