Mothers concerned at prospect of extra classroom

Mothers at Fern Hill Primary in Kingston were concerned to learn an extra class will be tacked on to the school in September.

They fear it will lead to overcrowding in the playground and force the school to spread its resources more thinly. Many are worried the "temporary" extra class will return in future years, leading to even more competition for the borough's oversubscribed secondary schools.

Marketing consultant and mother-of-two Angela Norton, 40, said: "It's just a mess. The council has approved 3,200 new units of accommodation in the last seven years but when we said we'd need more schools to cope they just said, 'Trust us, we're planners'. I can't believe they couldn't see this coming.

"A decade ago, Fern Hill was a bunch of mobile huts on this land, which was a temporary solution to overcrowding at Coombe. Here we are 10 years down the line and the huts are coming back because they are still not predicting accurately. I understand the children have to go somewhere, and I feel for the parents, but adding 30 kids will put massive pressure on space and staff."

Mother-of-three Nadya Chilcote, 32, said: "A lot of parents will complain if their children end up in a temporary shed - it could be too cold, too hot, too dark, too far from the lavatory. And what are they going to do next year - have two huts in the playground?"