A village primary school has finally won its battle to increase the size of two of its classrooms - after a 15-year wait.

Conditions were so cramped in the rooms for the seven to nine-year-olds that head teacher Nigel Powis even bought smaller desks to fit everyone in.

Now St Andrew's Church of England School, Weeley, has been given a £21,000 grant from the Department for Education and Skills to go with £15,000 it has saved itself for the £36,000 project.

Contractors are due to move onto the site today (Friday) and will work throughout the summer holiday to finish it.

The scheme is due to be completed in time for the youngsters to move back in on the first day of the new term.

Mr Powis said the school had to fit 30 pupils into classrooms which were designed to take a maximum of 25.

"It is nobody's fault in a sense," he said. "When it was built it was just a small village school and no-one realised just how much it would grow with 30 in each class.

"I saw the problem when I arrived 15 years ago and it has taken me all this time to get it solved. Up to now we have just had to crush the children in."

One of the classrooms will get more seating space while the other will get a reading bay and study area to take the pressure off.

The school's £15,000 has been saved over the years - some is left from when the school was grant maintained and the rest scraped together.

The school consistently achieves top results and this year is no different.

Mr Powis revealed that at level four standard assessment tests the youngsters had hit 100 per cent for science and maths, and 93 per cent for English.

"The only problem with that is that I will get less money next year because they will take away the cash I get for booster groups to get better results."

By Nigel Brown

Reporter's e-mail: nigel_brown@thisisessex.co.uk

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