WORK on Sherston's new primary school will begin in June, and could include space for the village pre-school and after school club.

The £1.64 million, six-classroom school will be built at Upper Stanbridge farm, and should be finished in less than a year.

County councillor John Thomson said: "It is great news. The whole community has come together and we have come up with a new plan so we can do things better in a new school."

There will be playground space and playing fields adjoining the school as well as a multi-purpose hall.

The plans were given the go-ahead last September when a previous plan to renovate the current school site was rejected in favour of the new school building at Stanbridge Farm.

Some money will come from the sale of the replacement school site at Manor Close, and further land at Butler's Close which was bought by Bryant homes for more than £3 million last August.

The cash will be split between paying for the new school and reducing the council's pension fund deficit.

A meeting last week discussed the possibility of including a room in the new school where the pre-school and after school club could meet.

Both groups currently hold classes in the village hall, but the school governors and pre-school want to have both in one location at the school.

The estimated £80,000 it would take to add the room would have to come from money raised by the public.

There will also be a playground for pre-school children to use, separate from the main school.

School governors' chairman Richard Knibb said there were obvious advantages to the scheme: "If the facilities stay where they are, there will be considerable problems for parents who have to take their children to the after school club," he said.

"The pre-school works closely with the school and if they are next to each other rather than half a mile away it would ease the transition to the bigger school."

The meeting was unanimously in favour of putting the pre-school and after school clubs in the new building and also discussed the future provision of hot school meals. There was general support for a plan to install kitchens.

Mr Knibb said the money must be raised before building work begins and the governors and pre-school are looking at ways to find the funds.