A PRIMARY school in Bridgwater will double in size in order to meet rising demand in the town.

Willowdown Primary Academy was constructed on Kings Drive in 2014 to accommodate 210 pupils, using money from local housing developments.

Somerset County Council has predicted that the school will be over capacity by September 2019, with a further 1,350 houses expected to be built in its catchment area by 2032.

To solve the problem, the school will gradually expand with seven new classrooms to allow up to 420 pupils to be educated there at any one time.

Liz Smith, the council’s service manager for schools commissioning, said the school had been designed to allow for such a rate of growth.

She said: “The school was originally built to accommodate 210 pupils with the potential for a phase two expansion to accommodate a further 210 pupils.”

According to the council’s calculations, the school will be over capacity by September 2019, with 214 pupils expected to be drawn from its catchment area.

This will rise to 237 by 2022, putting further strain on the existing buildings if nothing is done.

Ms Smith said it was “already becoming a challenge” to accommodate all pupils, and said that the spare capacity could not be taken up by the nearby Northgate Primary School.

She added: “This would incur transport costs to the council and bring forward the need for another primary school on the west of the town sooner.

“A further 1,350 homes are planned to be built in the Willowdown catchment area between 2020 and 2032. This equates to 432 pupils.

“A further primary school at Bower Lane is also planned post-2022.”

The land east of Bower Lane – between the hospital and the A372 – has been identified for future housing development in Sedgemoor District Council’s Local Plan.

Ms Smith said the county council would work with the Clevedon Learning Trust (which rans the school) to ensure the expansion caused the minimum amount of disruption to pupils.

The school was originally part of the Essex-based Collaborative Academies Trust, but was placed under new management after that trust pulled out of Somerset in March 2018.

Ms Smith said: “We will want to work with the academy trust to increase the numbers of pupils at the school at a steady pace, ideally bringing into use one classroom at a time.

“This will inevitably mean mixed age classes for a period of time, but we will manage the growth so as not to impact on neighbouring schools.”

As well as providing 210 new schools places, the extension will also provide an activity space and 26 new nursery places.

The council has not revealed the cost of the extension, citing commercial sensitivity, but has said it would be operational by September 2020.