Morgan Sindall has announced it is underway with work to build a new £2.6m primary school in Halton.

The £2.6m Halebank Church of England Primary School will be located on Heath View Road in Widnes.

It is one of 12 schools to be delivered by Morgan Sindall under the Education Funding Agency's (EFA) Priority Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) which aims to provide purpose-built school buildings to those in most need of repair.

The new building will see most of the existing buildings demolished, with only the pre-school building being retained.

A new single-storey school building will be developed, along with a new car park and associated external learning space for pupils.

A phased programme of construction and demolition works will allow the existing school to remain open while the new one is being developed.

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Halebank CE Primary School will have a half form entry and accomodate 105 pupils.

Features include four classrooms, a new hall and dining area, a learning resource centre, a dedicated special educational needs room and new staff facilities.

Works will also include extensive re-landscaping of the site, including a new multi-use games area.

Barry Roberts, Area Director at Morgan Sindall, said: "Halebank Church of England Primary School is a great community school and I'm sure the pupils and staff will benefit greatly from the new facilities. The new design makes the best use of the space available and will give the school an enhanced presence in the local community.

"We are now progressing well with this project and will keep the local community informed about developments on site."

Gill Threadgold, Head Teacher at Halebank CE Primary School, added: "Staff, pupils and governors of our school are very excited about the new building and its much improved teaching facilities, which will provide a better working environment for all who use the school."

Through the national PSBP programme, 261 schools will be rebuilt or have their condition needs met by the EFA, the first of which was completed in 2014. All schools within the programme will be delivered by the end of 2017.

Morgan Sindall's contract covers the design and build of the new school and the Hard Facilities management of the school for 25 years. Designers have utilised level two Building Information Modelling (BIM) practices to design the school.

The school and associated external works are scheduled to complete in summer 2016.

(LM)