AN AMBITIOUS project to unite infant and junior pupils at King’s Stanley Primary in a single building is expected to start in April.

Gloucestershire County Council has revealed a £2.5million scheme to extend and refurbish the current infant site to provide facilities for both departments.

During the year-long construction work, expected to start in the Easter holidays, the 77 infants would move into two temporary buildings on land adjacent to the current junior site.

Headteacher Barbara Deacon said: "It is really exciting. To have a new building with all the extra space and facilities will be fantastic.

"But it is still going to keep that feel of a Cotswold village school."

The development aims to ensure the school, which currently has 177 pupils but has a capacity for 210, can be managed more efficiently after the infants and juniors were amalgamated in September 2008.

GCC, which owns the infant site in Broad Street, has involved pupils, teachers, governors and parents in the planning process.

About 80 per cent of the current building, including the original Victorian section, would be retained and the overall floor space would be more than doubled.

The capacity would remain at 210 children and total number of pupils and staff would stay the same.

There would be four junior classrooms in a two-storey extension, plus two infant infant classrooms and one reception classroom in a groundfloor extension.

The old hall would be extended and there would also be a new ‘multi-purpose’ room for group work, clubs and other activities.

At the heart of the school would be a new library with a glass atrium.

The building would have more room for standard facilities, including toilets, changing rooms, offices, a reception, a kitchen and storage.

Outside there would be a playground, covered areas for planing or learning, a parents’ covered waiting area, parking space and cycle storage.

Both departments could relocate to the new building as soon as April 2011.

No decision has been made over the future of the junior site, owned by the Diocese of Gloucester and the Marlings Close Trust.

A GCC officer must decide before February 11 whether he can approve the plans or whether they must be considered by a committee.