WITH phase two of the building work at South Tawton Primary School now fully underway, the school has commemorated the new build with a time capsule.

The school secured more than £1.3-million of investment from Devon County Council’s Capital Strategy fund as part of the Capital Build programme. It is being used to replace four outdated classroom buildings with one new purpose-built classroom block. It will have three classrooms, each with separate cloakrooms and toilets, additional learning space, and the new hall.

The build was originally to be made up of four new classrooms, but with the current school hall far too small and not fit for purpose, the school governors and architects NPS have worked together to create the new plans for the school’s new block.

The three new classrooms — bright and airy spaces for children to learn in — are now being used after the first phase of development was completed. The second phase is now underway with building firm Morgan Sindall hard at work on completing the school hall.

Many activities that currently take place in the Victory Hall, such as school plays and rehearsals, will be able to take place in the new hall once it is finished. The current hall is to be modified to be used as a classroom – which was the room’s original purpose.

Three of the four huts that stand in the school playground have been demolished to make way for the new build. Originally built to be temporary classrooms, they have stood on the site since 1962, and were no longer fit for purpose. The last remaining hut is to be demolished once the new building is complete to make added space in the playground.

The project is currently around a week ahead of schedule, with the build due to be completed on Christmas Eve.

Heather Poustie, headteacher of the school, said: ‘The build has not interrupted the school’s day to day needs such as the playground. Morgan Sindall have been so flexible and the communication has been really good. They have done such an amazing job so far, I could not speak highly enough of them.’

Dave Pearce, the build project manager said: ‘We got the first three classrooms done on time and progress on the hall is looking good. It has been a real pleasure working with the school and a real pleasure providing a great school with a great facility.’

With work now fully underway on the new hall, the school has placed a time capsule under the hall floor for future generations to discover and find out about life in 2015. Alongside a copy of the October 1 edition of The Guardian newspaper, pupils added contributions of their own with their thoughts on life at South Tawton Primary in 2015.