Councillors have approved plans for five new buildings at Lammack Primary School in Lammack Road, Blackburn. The £1.55million expansion aims to cater for children from an expected 900 new homes in North Blackburn. Blackburn with Darwen Council hopes to have completed them by September for the new intake. The borough’s Planning and Highways Committee gave the new buildings the go-ahead on Thursday. The new classrooms will provide extra space for reception, year one, four and six children and expand the school from the current 488 children to a maximum of 630 and the number of staff from 80 to 103. The approval was granted despite objections from nearby residents about the loss of green open space; noise generated from additional pupils; parking; traffic; that the access from Whinney Lane would be dangerous; air pollution; and potential anti-social behaviour when the school is closed caused by the opening up of the site for the new buildings.
TWO primary schools have announced that they will not be reopening for the majority of pupils tomorrow. Lammack Primary School and Longshaw Community Junior School in Blackburn have both said that due to fears raised by teaching unions about the coronavirus infection rate, they will remain closed for most children tomorrow, though Longshaw will continue to take in Year 6 and some vulnerable pupils. Lammack has said that the likelihood is that they then move to online learning for the next two weeks, but that they would update parents on the situation tomorrow. A message sent to parents from headteacher Paula Duckworth reads, “As you may be aware that has been a great deal of media speculation about schools reopening over the past few days.”