Gallery: New building opened at Colchester school during diversity event

Montgomery Infant School and Nursery / Montgomery Junior School in Colchester officially opens its new school building. (Image: Archant)

The brightly-coloured building will be shared by Montgomery Infant and Junior schools to increase overall capacity to 630 pupils.

As well as eight new classrooms the building has a kitchen to serve meals to pupils.

Work has also been carried out on the existing school buildings, with extra staff car parking and play areas created.

Construction on the project, funded by Essex County Council, began in July last year.

It was officially opened by Norman Hume, county council chairman, during a celebration of ethnic diversity at the school.

Pupils from more than 15 countries were invited to come in wearing their national dress, and there were performances by the Military Children’s Choir, an African drumming group and a dance group.

Mr Hume said: “As our county continues to grow it is important the infrastructure is in place to meet the population’s needs.

“That is exactly what we are doing with school expansion projects such as this and I am delighted to be opening this fantastic new building for future generations in Colchester to enjoy.”

Ray Gooding, county councillor for education, added: “Pupil numbers in Colchester are rising as a result of development across the borough. As a council, we are committed to ensuring the supply of school places is in place to meet that demand and we plan to spend about £200million over the next five years on creating new places across the county.

“We have created 3,000 additional primary school places in Essex ahead of the 2015/16 academic year and I am pleased to see projects such as this one coming to fruition.”

Sally Leung, headteacher at the infant school and nursery, said she was delighted with the new building which had provided the children with “a wonderful learning environment”.