A VILLAGE school on the outskirts of Redditch has undergone a £1 million restructure following the announcement it is to convert to the two tier system.

Astwood Bank Primary School, in Church Road, formerly Astwood Bank First School, is set to unveil a new building with six new classrooms to house years 4, 5,6 pupils from September.

A grand opening ceremony is being held at 3pm on June 24, which will run alongside the school's summer fair.

The school was granted approval by the regional schools commissioners last year to convert to a primary and, as part of that approval, they were awarded a £1 million Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) grant from the Education Funding Agency, an executive organisation sponsored by the Department for Education.

In a release, Kevin Sherrington-Lodge, chairman of the board of governors at Astwood Bank Primary School, said it had taken two years of "hard work" make the transformation.

He said: "Thank you for the overwhelming support we have had from our parents and local community, which has been very important in securing the funding from government.

"This change is a big undertaking, but our main focus will remain on the children. The staff and governors are very excited and would like to thank you for your support in getting the project started."

Headteacher Debbie Yarnold added: "In response to other local changes we applied to become a primary school to take our children to the end of Key Stage 2. 

"We applied for condition improvement funding from the Education Funding Agency which has allowed us to build an impressive new six classroom block to house our years 4, 5 and 6 children. 

"We are very excited to keep our children to the end of Key Stage 2," she added. 

Astwood Bank Primary is a community school, which although works with partner schools, is a single academy and not part of a larger trust. 

For more information go to astwoodbank.worcs.sch.uk.