A new pre-school, sports hall, eight classrooms, games area and kitchen will all form part of an expansion at New Road Primary School in Whittlesey.

The works, which are due to be complete by spring next year, will see an expansion of the existing school to take pupil numbers from 147 to 420.

Kier Eastern and Cambridgeshire County Council held a groundbreaking ceremony to officially mark the start of construction at the school last week.

Mayor Julie Windle was in attendance as well as councillors, the Kier team and the architect working on the project from RH Partnership.

Rob Litten, head teacher, said: “The expansion of the school means that it is now a comparable size and has a similar range of facilities to the other two primary schools in the town.”

Dennis Cotton, operations director at Kier Eastern, added: “We’re delighted to be working with Cambridgeshire County Council to deliver this exciting project.

“We have extensive experience in delivering education facilities and we look forward to this project providing the local community with much-needed pupil spaces.”