HEAD teacher Adam Croft says his school is already reaping the benefits of a major improvement scheme.

Mr Croft is the head teacher at Charles Darwin Community Primary School, which has been transformed by a project aimed at creating more space.

The 351-pupil school was built in 1910, and the original idea, supported by the local authority, was for four additional classrooms, which would make up a new reception class and new year one classes.

There would also be new small group rooms and new toilets.

With the support of the local authority the project was extended to include a new entrance ‘wing’ and redevelopment of the offices, further space for the teaching of small groups of children, a meeting room and extra storage space.

This was then further developed to include an extension of the school grounds.

The work began in July, and the new entrance, offices and store room were completed in October.

The plan is for children to move into their new classes at the start of the spring term in January.

“We are a very popular school in need of additional space to cater for parents wishing to send their children to us, and I’m absolutely delighted with the scheme so far,” said Mr Croft.

“In just one week we have already reaped the benefit of the new entrance and spaces, and I look forward to seeing our children move into their new purpose-built classrooms in the new year.

“The benefits of the scheme are a greatly enhanced teaching and learning environment – a purpose-built early years environment will be a huge asset to our school.

“We do a huge amount of work with small groups of children to support them with their education, and this was becoming extremely challenging due to space constraints.

“We can now give all children the support they deserve in a suitable environment.”

The new entrance foyer had proved very popular with staff, parents, children and visitors, he added.

The scheme is a recent project by Northwich-based building consultancy partnership, Sandiway Energy Consultants and AB Architecture.