Angered parents of pupils at a once "pioneering" primary school which hasn’t been open for a year due to safety concerns are bewildered by news their children won’t be able to return for another 12 months. Last summer parents of children at Millbrook Primary School in Bettws, Newport, told WalesOnline a “slanting wall” on the school building caused so much worry for staff that the council agreed with the head teacher Keri Smith that the building would need to be closed.
The wall was cordoned off by staff at the school in June 2022 ahead of an announcement in September 2022, days before pupils were set to return for the new academic year, that the school building was structurally unsafe. All 308 pupils from reception to year six were moved to what was then described as a temporary base at the adult teaching centre behind Brynglas House.
Parents say while staff have done their best to accommodate the children in Brynglas the building is too small and inadequate for pupils’ needs. Two parents said their children were in a class with more than 60 others in Brynglas while children as young as infant school age are taking a bus from the Millbrook school site to Brynglas each morning and afternoon, often not getting home until 4.45pm.
