THIS is the first glimpse of what a £5million primary school in north Colchester will look like.

Essex County Council and the Department for Education is building the 420-pupil school to keep pace with housing developments.

The school will be built on five acres of land off Northern Approach Road, next to the former Severalls Hospital.

A total of 1,500 homes are being built on the old hospital site, and the school will be financed by contributions from developers.

Work on the two-storey school is likely to start next spring and the first pupils could start in September 2016.

A planning application is due to be submitted to Essex County Council in the next fewweeks.

Jeremy Wagge, of architect Skanska, said: “It’s very much a community primary school and the idea is it will be serving the new housing.

“If we don’t build this school here, it means local residents will have to clog up the roads getting to the next nearest primary school.

“We are providing this at the heart of the housing and it will provide the opportunity for parents to walk, as it will be right next to their houses.

“It is a well-chosen site.”

Mr Wagge said pupils will be likely to walk and cycle to the school.

Kevin Wilby, Essex County Council’s school organisation officer, said it would shortly be advertising for an academy sponsor to run the school.

It is likely the school will start with 60 pupils across two reception classes and 15 pupils per year group across the rest of the school.

These numbers would increase in subsequent years.

This would allow parents with children in the reception classes to have an older child at the school.

Residents saw the plans at a consultation event at Colchester’s Community Stadium.

Tina Watts, of Chestnut Close, Mile End, said her two children attended nearby Myland Community Primary School and it was over-subscribed.

She said: “In the next few years we are going to have so many more houses and we need somewhere to send the children."