A DECISION by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator to remove the catchment guarantee for a year for Felsted Primary School has been given the thumbs up by two headteachers. Lawrence Garside, the headteacher of Felsted Primary School, and Janet Matthews,

A DECISION by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator to remove the catchment guarantee for a year for Felsted Primary School has been given the thumbs up by two headteachers.

Lawrence Garside, the headteacher of Felsted Primary School, and Janet Matthews, headteacher of Stebbing Primary School, both said they were delighted with the announcement.

Mr Garside said: "We are very pleased with this decision. Because we are a successful school we have more and more children wanting to come to study here but we are full to the brim.

"I don't want to see our class sizes get any larger because we don't want to go back to the days of having 40 children in one class.

"Arrangements have been made for the children to go to other schools; mostly to Stebbing Primary School."

Mrs Matthews said: "We are absolutely delighted and extremely excited about this.

"The whole thing has been handled very well by the LEA. They have given us the money for a new Demountable classroom and they have also funded an extra teacher."

"We know these extra pupils may only be coming here for one year but we really hope they enjoy coming here so much that they will want to stay.

"But if you can send your children to a school that they can walk to just around the corner from where they live, I know that we may well lose a few.

"After all, when the new school opens, it will be up to parents to decide whether to keep their children here or to move them to the new one."

The move to remove the catchment guarantee comes after delays in building a new school at Oakwood

Park, which was originally due to be opened in 2007. It is now due to open in 2008.

The decision was made after the governors asked Essex County Council, to vary Felsted Primary School's admission arrangements for 2007/2008.

They wanted to remove the guarantee of a place at the school for those pupils who reside within the priority admissions area because they are at full capacity.

The school has 314 pupils with an estimated intake this year of 315. With extra children coming from Oakwood Park it would have exceeded capacity.