Pupils reunited as new primary block opens, while other school works face delays

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

Pupils reunited as new £16 million primary school block at St Andrew’s Primary School, off Corporation Road in Newport opens.

Junior classes were moved to temporary facilities off-site after inspectors found a “serious structural defect” in the school’s Key Stage 2 building in March 2021.

St Andrew’s headteacher Jo Giles said: “It is wonderful that we will all be back on one site”.

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'Worth the wait'

“We are very much a community school and our families, and local residents, have been very understanding about the situation we found ourselves in,” Mrs Giles added. “I think the wait has been worth it.”

The headteacher recently welcomed council leader Dimitri Batrouni and cabinet member for education Councillor Deb Davies to her school.

Cllr Batrouni said the new building was “an excellent replacement that provides an improved learning environment and great new facilities for the children and staff”.

Its opening follows the handover in November of a new primary school at the Whiteheads development off Mendalgief Road, and the opening of a new building at Bassaleg School in October.

Speaking at a Newport City Council cabinet meeting, on Monday January 13, Cllr Davies welcomed the “beautiful buildings” at the three schools.

“It’s great to see them open and filled with children,” she said, adding that the new facilities at the sites would “only help” to improve outcomes for pupils and represented “really positive steps forward”.

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Delays elsewhere

A new council report shows some other school infrastructure projects are facing delays, however.

The majority of work on a new sports hall at Ysgol Gymraeg Gwent Is Coed is due to be completed by the end of March, but issues with underground and piling works have caused a delay.

The council said it had accepted the contractor’s request for a time extension, pushing the completion date back to June 2025.

Meanwhile, temporary classrooms at Lliswerry High School have been held up because of a “number of services underground where the building is proposed to be sited”.

The council said it is in “ongoing” talks with the National Grid, with the aim of those underground services being “re-routed”.