SCHOOLGIRL Alanna Britten helped to mark the start of work on a new primary school at Brickley Lane, Devizes.

The school is being built as part of the planning gain from the new housing estate being put up by a consortium of developers, including Persimmon, Bloor and Swan Hill Homes.

Alanna, nine, joined Wiltshire county councillor Pat Rugg, county council education officer Tom Lindsay, and Persimmon Homes' managing director Richard Briggs, to see a JCB cutting the first turf.

The school, funded by Persimmon Homes, Bloor Homes and Wiltshire County Council, will be able to take up to 210 pupils and will have seven classrooms, IT facilities, a sports hall and an outdoor floodlit sports ground, which will be available for community use.

Mr Lindsay said the county council was looking forward to the opening of the school next September.

He said: "We are already receiving a great deal of interest from parents.

"The benefit of having a new purpose-built school is that all the equipment and facilities are completely up-to-date with current educational thinking and the requirements of the curriculum."