Pupils are in the Army now!

Weeton Primary School children will be taught in Army training facilities for around three weeks while repair work is carried out at their school

Reception and Year One pupils at Weeton Primary School will be taught in the canteen while urgent repair work to the ageing school building is completed in around three weeks time, headteacher Anthony Goth said.

Youngsters in Years Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six, will be taught in the Army’s training wing on Weeton Barracks, where the school is based.

In a letter to parents, Mr Goth said children will be taken from the school playground to the training wing, close to the Army gym, where classrooms have been set up using school furniture and resources.

Pupils on the way to their temporary school in Army training facilities

Mr Goth told parents, who he said have been understanding and supportive: “Rest assured your child’s education will not be affected – it will be a unique and exciting writing opportunity.”

Lancashire County Council (LCC) said the building of a new school on an old Army training field, will get under way early next year, following years of delays.

LCC’s head of asset management, Matthew Tidmarsh, said: “There has unfortunately been a delay with the start of the building work, mainly because of the processes involved in transferring the land needed for the new school from the Ministry of Defence to the county council, which have been complex and extremely time-consuming.

“The land transfer was completed last week and this can really start to progress now. We are hoping the builders will be on site early in the new year.”

The county council was ‘pushed into a corner’ after a routine inspection found the 1950s prefabricated building to be structurally unsafe, chair of governors, Coun Cheryl Little said yesterday.

She said: “We have been saying this school is not fit for purpose for six years now and they promised us a new one.

“They have been pushed into a corner by the closure and had to do something.

“The children have only lost two days of education and on the positive side this was the catalyst which has brought the need for a new building to the fore.”

Former governor Adrian Hutton, who quit in frustration at a lack of progress on the new building, said several dates have been given in the past.

He added: “The new school should have been up and running four years ago.”