A PRIMARY school is today celebrating the official opening of two "beautiful" new classrooms to help it cope with an increase in capacity.

The new building extension at Coppermill Primary School in Walthamstow, funded by Waltham Forest Council, also includes a new reception, admin office and toilets.

The school is officially a one form entry school but has been taking on extra pupils due to the borough's shortage of pupil places, with the new site allowing it to have an additional reception class.

Coppermill's recently appointed new headteacher Figen Bektasoglu said: "The building really is lovely and beautiful. The design fits in perfectly with the rest of the school and it's great to have the extra space.

"It's brilliant and this type of investment is really important for us moving towards becoming a really good school.

"The work was completed during October half term so the children have been using the site for a few weeks, but we wanted to have an official opening because it's such an important milestone for Coppermill."

She added: "We were worried about the disruption but I want to thank the builders and on-site manager who managed to keep it to a minimum.

"They were excellent at co-operating with us to make sure the pupils weren't affected too much by it."

The works to the site, in Edward Road, were approved by Waltham Forest Council in March.

A total of 27 neighbours were consulted but none objected.

In recent years the school has been forced to use temporary classroom buildings in its playground to cope with extra pupil numbers.