A village school would wave farewell to 20-year-old mobile classrooms and almost double in size under a growth scheme to ease 'significant pressure' on places.

Diss Mercury: Proposed elevations of Roydon Primary School, with the new extension. Picture: NPS/Norfolk County CouncilProposed elevations of Roydon Primary School, with the new extension. Picture: NPS/Norfolk County Council (Image: Archant)

The children's services team at Norfolk County Council has submitted a planning application for Roydon Primary School, which would see an extension added to the existing school building, parts of which date back to 1886.

It would include eight classrooms, a main hall, kitchen, offices, toilets and storage, as well as a refurbishment of the existing building and expansion of the car park up to 50 spaces.

At full capacity, the school, which would benefit from a new staffroom and refurbished library, would accommodate 420 pupils - up from the current 244, planning documents say.

Headteacher Sarah Bradford said: 'This is a very exciting project and, although the planning application has only recently been submitted and we at the beginning of the process, we are hopeful that it will not be too long before we see the first brick laid.

'The children will benefit from new classrooms, a new hall - nearly twice the size of the one we currently use - a food technology room, an all-weather play area and changing rooms but, most of all, we are delighted to be getting rid of our four mobiles that were temporary installations over twenty years ago.'

She said while the school was growing in size, parents could rest assured that 'every one of our pupils will continue to be taught as an individual', and the Roydon 'family ethos will remain at the heart of all we do'.

In online planning documents, the council's children's services department said: 'Diss is experiencing significant pressure on school places due to housing developments but the proximity of much of the housing is closer to or as close to Roydon as it is to Diss.'

They said expanding Diss Junior School would be problematic, and that they were looking at finding another school site for the town.

Planning documents say, if approved, the work at Roydon would result in a small loss of playing field area, though neither hard nor soft play space would be removed.

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