New village pre-school building 'crucially needed'

The pre-school takes children from the ages of two years and ten months, Teversham Primary School said

A council has given approval for unsuitable mobile classrooms to be replaced by a pre-school in a village where early years provision has been "growing".

The structure will be built in Teversham Primary School, in Teversham, Cambridgeshire, after permission was granted by Cambridgeshire County Council.

Nicol Perryman, a planner at the construction consultancy firm Ingleton Wood, said there was a "critical need" for the mobile classrooms to be replaced.

"The pre-school has operated for too long within temporary mobiles and this project has been a long time in the making [to get to] this point to improve the experience of the young children in the care of the pre-school," she said.

"[The headteacher] advises that pupils have typically started Reception class with low levels of communication and physical development skills.

"She credits getting children into their early years education early as key to their later success throughout school," Ms Perryman added.

She said demand for the only pre-school in Teversham was "growing", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"Having a permanent purpose built, high quality and sustainable building that conforms [to] the Department for Education’s standards, will transform the experiences the school is able to offer and enable them to meet the current demand for places up to their existing capacity," Ms Perryman said.