Children at the new Kennet Valley School, created by enlarging the previous lower school at Lockeridge, have been settling in.

Since the early 1990s the former Lockeridge and East Kennett Schools were federated under one headteacher with the youngest classes at the Lockeridge buildings and older children at East Kennett.

For educational reasons headteacher Kim Spencer and the governors wanted to put the school under one roof but neither of the original buildings was big enough.

So it was decided to expand the Lockeridge buildings in such a way that little change to the original Victorian school is seen from the front.

For the last school year the children were all taught at East Kennett, which closed two weeks ago. The Year 6 leavers make one pilgrimage back to their old school today for a farewell service before they move to their secondary schools. As the children began to get used to the new building paid for by Salisbury Diocese, Mrs Spencer said: “It’s working absolutely brilliantly.”

She praised the architects who had created double the floorspace of the two previous buildings with three new classrooms, one of which will be used by Bluebell Nursery.

“Everyone who sees it says how impressed they are by the extra space we have gained,” she said.