How disruptive will this be to my DC's education?

[mckenzie]

The powers that be want to expand our school from 2 form entry to 3 form. The consultation period has just finished and it seems they have pretty much decided to expand even though a large contingent are opposed, local residents especially. They have given out 90 places for September 2010 so the best we can hope for is a bulge class but I think that is unlikely.

The building work will take 2 years and temporary classrooms will be used in the meantime. The canteen is only just big enough for the number of pupils at school now, likewise the hall so how these issues will be overcome in the short term we do not know.

Anyway, the reason for my post. How disruptive will this building and expansion be to my children's education? They are currently year 4 and reception. I appreciate that my dcs are complete individuals and it is fairly impossible to predict but in general terms, can anyone offer and opinion as to the affects on them?

TIA

We had a year of building work at my dcs infant school converting it from a 2 form entry infant to a 1 form entry primary.

The building work was a pain mainly because of the pedestrian access was even less suitable for puschair users than normal!!!!

I really don't think it bothered the children at the school at all the school used it as a learning opportunity etc. Our school has now one extra class than before and over the next few years it will have up to 9 classes (built for 6 extended to 7) - they have 2 shifts for lunch and school performances are now split into FS & KS1 and then KS2 do something different but they are hosted by the local church because there isn't enough room for all the children and the parents, but then there wasn't really room before so this is a bonus. They also gained a brand new IT suite, toilets redone etc etc so the school has benefitted from a lot of improvements.

In brief I wouldn't worry too much the dc will take it in their stride you will get pee'd off about it at times. Oh and they may have to have a "crane" day off school when they deliver the portable/temporary classrooms!

Our LA has gone through a consultation about going from 3 tier to 2 tier, this originally meant that one of the First schools in the local village would close and the other made bigger, we chose to put DD in a completely different school because of the thought of building works.

thanks both of you.
We had looked at a private school for DS last school year for other reasons and had decided against it this year as he has been so happy. Now we are reconsidering. DD is in reception - she's a completely different kettle of fish and will probably do quite well wherever she is (we hope).
We're very local to the school CarGirl so i'm guessing I'm going to be negative about it as a parent as well as a resident