CHILDREN are settling into a new £6million North Yorkshire school, designed to provide maximum air and light into classrooms.

Pupils are enjoying the benefits of both space and state-of-the-art ventilation in their new building at Overdale Community Primary in Eastfield, Scarborough.

Ventilation monitoring systems in all classrooms are designed to take account of staff wishes for spacious classrooms and a hall fit for whole-school events, even with bubbles and social distancing, as well as more flexible break-out areas for small group learning.

The school has double the capacity of the old building on its former site and its new location provides a link between the older parts of Eastfield and new housing developments in Middle Deepdale to the north.

North Yorkshire County Council opened the school at the beginning of the school year to provide places for up to 420 children plus a nursery and community facilities.

The project has been funded jointly through county council capital funds and contributions from the housing developers Kebbell Homes and Keepmoat Ltd.

The principal contractors were Walter Thompson Ltd. and the design consultants Align Property Partners.

County Councillor Patrick Mulligan, executive member for education and skills, said “This is the culmination of many years of planning, the result of which is a landmark building for the provision of high-quality education to the children of Eastfield.

“We are particularly pleased to have delivered this provision successfully during a difficult year in the context of the Covid pandemic.”

Headteacher Vicki Logan said: “We use our outdoor space for orienteering and problem solving. We can teach numeracy and phonics outdoors, for example, and we also have two outdoor gyms.

"We do a lot of learning with the children through problem solving activities, which the children often view as game playing.”

It also provides break-out spaces and classrooms for small group learning and therapeutic sessions, homework clubs and family learning. There is a separate section of the building for community use.

The new building also enables Overdale to continue with work using in-house speech and language therapists to support children who arrive in their early years with poor language and communication skills.

The therapists also develop the speech and language development skills of staff and work with parents and carers to help their children.

Overdale has accessed £640k of Opportunity Area funding since 2017, creating a speech and language therapy hub with 24 primary schools across Scarborough district.

Opportunity Areas were established four years ago with a focus on social mobility to raise aspirations and teaching and learning for children and young people across the UK.

Although the Opportunity Area funding for speech and language therapy has now reduced – the programme comes to an end next summer - the new building with its bespoke spaces is supporting the school to continue the therapy which it now funds largely through its own budget.