A MASSIVE cash injection is being given to provide new classrooms at a thriving Huddersfield primary school.

Councillors yesterday approved the Šrefurbishment of an old unused classroom block at Crosland Moor Junior School on Dryclough Road.

The council’s Cabinet rubber-stamped the £375,000 project, which is due to start over the summer break and will include four large classrooms, a community and family room, planning and preparation room and new toilet and storage facilities.

Council leader Clr Mehboob Khan said: “This investment is absolutely essential in order to have the bare minimum of school places available.”

Spiralling admissions at the school mean the renovation of the teaching block is a cheaper solution than a new building for the school which shares its site with Dryclough CE Infant School and a Surestart Centre.

Jane Richardson, headteacher at Crosland Moor Junior School, said she was expecting the school roll to increase by a least 100 children over the next four or five years, taking the current pupil total from 392 to well over 500 children.

“We are very much a community school and we want children who live around the school to attend this school but without the refurbishment we would be struggling to admit them all,” she said.

Mrs Richardson said the refurbishment heralded an exciting future for the school.

“It will allow us much more flexibility with learning,’’ she said. “We are already developing our curriculum and this will allow us much more scope, particularly developing a family and community room and additional teaching facilities.”

A report to Kirklees Cabinet says refurbishing and bringing back into use the Oak Building which is attached to the main building is a short-term solution to provide additional pupil places on the shared campus.

The building was mothballed since the completion of a major extension to Dryclough CE Infants School in the mid 2000s.

The report says although structurally sound, the Oak Building is in a poor state of repair.

Work to bring it back to satisfactory standard will include re-roofing, repairing and replacing windows, redecorating, refurbishing toilets, rewiring and external work to ensure it is compliant with health and safety and disability legislation

The report says the project is a cost effective method of providing additional places and is significantly cheaper than a new building

The governing body of the junior school has already given its backing to the project and plans are being drawn up to see how it can best be used by both schools.

Contractors have already been appointed and it is hoped work will start next week. It will continue throughout the summer but will not be completed before school restarts in September.