PROPOSALS to spend £1.8million expanding a village school are set to be signed off by Hampshire’s education chief today.

The plans would see the cash poured into Colden Common Primary School to help meet demand created by new housing in the area.

Currently teaching 356 pupils, the expansion, if approved by Hampshire County Council’s executive member for education and skills, human resources and performance Cllr Stephen Reid, would allow the school to teach at total of 420 children by replacing a temporary structure with a permanent building.

According to the report due to be signed off by Cllr Reid this afternoon, the school is expected to reach full capacity next September, but 90 pupils would be based in the temporary classrooms.

The work would begin in autumn 2019 and be completed by September 2020.

It would see a single-storey extension added to the Upper Moors Road school, comprising of three classrooms, as well as addition toilets and a plant room.

There would also be work to improve the existing school kitchen to meet increasing pupil demand.

In addition, an external teaching space would be created outside the extension with additional bike and scooter parking being put in place for new pupils. Staff would also get an additional five car parking spaces at the site.

Under the plans, the extension has been designed with a pitched aluminium roof to complement the existing school building.

The report says that, if approved, deliveries and other vehicle movements would not take place at the start or the end of the school day to prevent unnecessary travel disruption during construction.

As previously reported, the school was awarded a ‘good’ Ofsted rating in June last year, with a number of areas being identified by the education watchdog as outstanding.

The current school building was constructed in 1997 after a fire destroyed the original building.

Describing the school to the Echo earlier this year, head teacher Frances Hardy, pictured inset, said: “Our children benefit from an exciting and engaging curriculum which includes a wide variety of day and residential trips to enhance their learning in all areas.

“All adults in the setting are committed to developing each child as an individual, and we care very much for the whole child, celebrating all successes, not just academic, and embedding our learning values: Working together, resilience, challenge, curiosity and independence.”

Following today’s decision, a planning application for the extension is due to be submitted in November.