New Devon academy to open in 2024 after construction delay

The Ted Wragg Trust-run academy is due to have nursery and school places for more than 1,400 children

Devon's newest academy school will not now open until September 2024 after building issues led to a year's delay.

Matford Brook Academy in Exeter had been due to welcome its first pupils this month, but parents were told in the summer it was not ready to open.

It will serve children from the city's new Haldon Reach housing development.

But its first pupils are being taught 4 miles (6.5km) away at a partner school in Pinhoe as work to tackle problems with Matford's foundations continues.

The Ted Wragg Trust-run academy is to cater for two to 16-year-olds, but the first intake this year was only open to nursery, pre-school, reception and year seven pupils.

'Unsettling for all'

They are currently being taught at St Luke's CofE School, which is also part of the trust.

Parents received letters in June saying "significant" construction issues meant it was "not possible" to open on 6 September, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The letter added that, although "hugely disappointing and unsettling for all", the trust and Devon County Council had worked with the Department for Education (DfE) to "develop options to open the school in temporary accommodation for as many pupils as possible for [this] September."

The trust said "remedial works" were under way "for the DfE's contractors for our permanent site".

When the academy finally opens, it will provide 59 nursery places, 630 primary school places pupils and 750 secondary places.