A NEW classroom for a popular Frome school will cost the best part of 1 million to design and build.

Trinity Church of England First School, in Nunney Road, lies in the Frome safer school streets zone, where numerous measures have been implemented to make it safer for children to walk and cycle to school.

It is currently over-capacity with 294 pupils on roll, some being taught in a nursery area as a short-term workaround, and more children expected to enrol in the next two to three years.

Now, Somerset Council is to spend nearly £911,000 on a 30-pupil classroom, with the cost entirely met by housing developers.

Education places strategy officer Rose Stokes said: “Trinity School is currently operating above its main school capacity, with some statutory school age children being taught in a nursery building that was not designed for this purpose.

“We must act to ensure that all children have access to appropriate learning environments.

“The proposed classroom will help meet this need and support the school’s ability to deliver high-quality education.

“The classroom will be added to the end of an existing building, which is the most cost-effective and practical location.

“We have been working closely with the headteacher and the Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership, and they are all supportive of the plans to create the additional classroom.”

The total budget for the new classroom is £910,930, which includes all fees associated with construction, information and communications technology, and classroom furniture.

The funding has to be committed in its entirety by June, 2027, due to restrictions in the original legal agreements for the housing developments from which the funding is being provided.

In light of this, construction is likely to begin in the coming months with a view to the new classroom starting to be uses by September next year.