A new primary school in Welshpool has finally opened its doors to pupils and staff.
Welshpool Church in Wales Primary School welcomed children of critical workers, and vulnerable learners to the new Salop Road site on the first day of the school term on Wednesday, January 6.
The majority of pupils will not be able to visit their new school building until at least January 18 after the Welsh Government announced that all schools in Wales should move to online learning due to rising number of new coronavirus cases.
“As you can imagine, tomorrow is not the opening to our new school building that we would have liked and we are desperately sad that not all our children and their families can experience it altogether,” said a spokesperson for the school on Tuesday evening.
“There have been many obstacles that we have all had to face over the last three years to get to our new building, but we must be grateful that we have overcome everything that has been thrown at us and become stronger as a community because of it.
“We will be thinking of all of our children and their families tomorrow and looking forward to a time, Covid permitting, when we can all celebrate together.”
We took a walk through of the new @WelshpoolCIWP just before we handed the keys to @PowysCC to see the progress.
— Pave Aways Ltd (@paveawaysltd) November 24, 2020
We hope the children love their new school when they move in next term @powyseducation! #construction #education #wales pic.twitter.com/yEyldWouZy
Building work started three years ago and was due for completion by September 2019, however construction company Dawnus went into administration causing a delay.
A new construction company Pave Aways began again in January 2020 and the building was due for completion in September 2020.
But this time, due to the coronavirus pandemic, building work came to a halt during the first lockdown causing further delay.
The new school building is the first Passivhaus primary school that Powys County Council has built as part of the 21st Century Schools Programme.
It is also the first time that more than 300 pupils will be taught on one site after learners were previously split between three separate geographical sites across the town – Howell Drive, Gungrog Road and Oldford.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here