Video: new building for growing numbers at Forest Town school

A brand new foundation unit at Forest Town Primary School to cater for Mansfield’s growing school population is nearing completion.

At present the school’s 395 capacity including part-time nursery children is almost full but the expansion will increase it to 500.

Headteacher Martyn Cartledge said the build was funded by the Department for Education’s Pupil Places allocation as a result of increased house building near Forest Town.

Said Mr Cartledge: “We have approximately 30 more children in the school today than there were a decade ago.

“But there are many schools across Mansfield going through the same process over the next year or two due to capacity problems.

“This will mean new facilities which will modernise our teaching space and it is an exciting time for us.”

The new unit will mainly house Foundation 2 level and nursery pupils, freeing up the rest of the school for more classes.

Mr Cartledge said new staff had also been recruited to allow for the extra pupils and the building would be ready for teaching by 15th September.

Sara Williams, Nottinghamshire County Council’s property team manager said: “We work very closely with schools and local communities during all stages of the process, from initial identification of where the places are needed, through the design process and the actual build stage.

“We analyse pupil projections data as soon as we have them and this allows us to more accurately assess where additional places will be required.

“We cannot base where places are required from the very high level county-wide totals, so we examine very carefully how trends develop in local areas.

“From this, we can identify quite specifically which schools need to be expanded in order to meet demand in the localities that have greatest pressure on places.”