Manorbrook Primary school to be expanded
South Gloucestershire Liberal Democrats are delighted today to announce the expansion of Manorbrook Primary School in Thornbury.
In recent years significant new housing has been built in Thornbury and as a result, there is a current shortfall of primary school places. To meet demand for primary school places two ‘breach*’ classes have already been added to the school, and a third breach class is required for September 2025. This project expands the school to properly make it a full 2 form entry school.
The first phase of expansion works will be carried out summer 2025 at the same time as the planned refurbishment of the infant block to replace and upgrade existing mechanical and electrical systems.
Phase 2 in summer 2026 will see the building of a new bigger nursery, converting the vacated nursery spaces into 2 classrooms for junior pupils, and expand the existing infant block with 2 additional classrooms.
Cllr Maggie Tyrell (Lib Dem Thornbury) said, “Thornbury has been in a terrible situation where the houses have been built but no school places were provided. Families have been struggling to get their children into the school of their choice. This problem has been happening across South Gloucestershire. We came into office and started to sort out the problems. We’ve looked at where the school infrastructure hadn’t been put in place alongside the housing. We got Lyde Green school going first, and now we are starting to sort out the problems around Thornbury. Finance is an issue but we are being innovative in finding ways to fund these school build programmes.”
Cllr Chris Willmore (Lib Dem Yate North) said, “We inherited a mess and now we are sorting it out. These are just the beginning of our school expansion and building projects. Residents have told us it’s not good enough building houses without building the infrastructure and we agree. We hope to announce good news about Charfield and Ladden Garden Village schools very soon as these are seriously overdue.”
South Gloucestershire’s Cabinet also agreed a planned expansion of New Horizons Learning Centre. An increase of at least 40 pupil places for children with SEND reflecting the increasing numbers of pupils who need extra support. This will reduce the reliance on expensive SEND places outside of South Gloucestershire Council’s control and mean children can go to school much nearer their homes.
*Note: a breach class is an additional intake of 1 class of up to 30 reception pupils. This additional class works its way through the school over the following 7 years.