Plan to bring 900 extra school places to Colchester gets underway

Essex County Council is planning to spend £14 million on expansions at St Michael’s Primary School, Stanway Primary School, Stanway Fiveways Primary School, Home Farm Primary School, and Monkwick Junior School for September 2018.

Some 315 extra places will be created at Stanway Fiveways Primary School with a new two-storey teaching block with nine new classrooms and a school hall.

At Stanway Primary School there will be nine new classrooms which will add 120 places.

It is expected an extra eight new classrooms will be created at Home Farm Primary School with 210 extra places, with two classrooms and 60 places at Monkwick Junior School.

Construction is set to begin on some projects later this month, while work on others will begin in the New Year.

In addition to the primary school projects due for completion next September, the council is hoping to provide 1,000 more places across the Colchester borough in the coming years.

A new primary school at the Lakelands site in Stanway is a possibility, while the Education and Skills Funding Agency has approved proposals for an all-through free school on the Chesterwell site, in Mile End, and a primary free school elsewhere in Colchester at a location which is yet to be decided.

Ray Gooding (Con), Essex County Council’s cabinet member for education said he was pleased to see work beginning.

He said: “Colchester continues to be one of the fastest growing areas in Essex and the demand for primary school places is expected to continue to rise in the coming years.

“We have already spent £30million creating more than 2,300 new school places in Colchester since September 2014 and are committed to ensuring that investment continues in the years to come.

“I am very pleased work is set to start on the expansion of these schools.

“The 915 new places these projects will create will be crucial in helping us to offer the vast majority of pupils a place at one of their parents’ preferred schools.”