Sports and community hall plan for primary school
A new sports and community hall could be built at a growing primary school to enable it to increase its capacity.
Under plans lodged with Shropshire Council, the new hall at West Felton Church of England School will enable two rooms currently used for lunch breaks and PE sessions to be re-purposed as classrooms.
The building will also include toilets and changing rooms, offices, meeting rooms and storage areas, and will be built alongside an enlarged car park and new vehicular access off Grimpo Road.
Outside school hours it will be available for community hire.
With pupil numbers now nearing 150 – up from 82 on roll in 2004 – leaders say the school has outgrown its current premises.
There are currently five classrooms contained in the original Victorian school and demountable buildings, but the school wants to increase this to seven classrooms to allow it to take more pupils.
A statement submitted in support of the application says: “The school struggles for space, particularly for meal times, indoor PE, wet weather sports and breaks, and whole school activities eg assemblies, etcetera.
“A few years ago the school decided that things had to change for the school to be sustainable, particularly as the number of pupils has steadily increased and there is demand for more pupils than they can accommodate.
“The school doesn’t want the lack of space to be detrimental to its future which, with more pupils and better facilities, could ultimately grow to have one year group per class.
“There is a general purpose room in the demountable buildings which is used for indoor PE, breaks, lunchtime, assemblies, group activities, etcetera.
“Another general purpose room in the main building is used for lunch service and seating, before and after school club, group activities, etcetera.”
The school currently has 10 full-time and 18 part-time employees.
The statement added: “If the school can expand to have seven classes rather than five, there will be opportunities for more teachers and teaching assistants as well as support and ancillary staff with increased facilities.”
The statement says the new hall will open up opportunities for a broader range of PE lessons and extra curricular activities, and host sporting events for the school federation which has a total of around 340 pupils.
It adds that it will also benefit the wider community, offering another option in the village for groups to hire.
The planning application will be decided by Shropshire Council.
