WORK has started on Okehampton’s new primary school – with an official turf cutting ceremony at the site on the outskirts of the town.

The ceremony on Wednesday last week, May 23, was organised by contractors Morgan Sindall, who will be building the new St James’ Church of England Primary School over the coming months.

It was also attended by representatives from school sponsors the Diocese of Exeter, Devon County Council and project managers NPS.

Nigel Whelan, area director for Morgan Sindall, said: ‘We’re very pleased to be underway with construction work at the new Church of England Primary School.

‘The new school will be a fantastic addition to the Okehampton community, creating valuable school places for local families and an outstanding teaching space for its pupils and staff.

‘We’re excited to be working with the Devon County Council and everyone at the school to deliver their new home later this year, which we hope will become a much-loved part of the community it will serve.’

The project has begun with groundworks over the past six weeks and work starts this week on the foundations of the building.

Mr Whelan said the building itself would really start to take shape in July.

‘It is all on target,’ he said. ‘The earthworks are ongoing and the foundations are starting to take shape. We have been on site for six weeks so far, and we are very happy with the way it is going.

‘The school itself is built from prefabricated panels, and once we have done the groundworks, the actual structure will go up very quickly. That will start to go up in July so there’ll be much more for people to physically see then.

‘When we get close to the job being completed, we will organise different events for people to see what we are doing,’ he added.’ What we want to do is engage with the school and the local community.’

The contractors are working to get the new school ready for January next year. In the meantime, the new school – a second primary for Okehampton – will open with its first cohort of pupils in September in buildings on the current Okehampton Primary School on Glendale Road.