TWO Blackburn community primaries are set to expand thanks to a £1.3million investment by the council.

Intack and Roe Lee Park schools will get £650,000 each to build new classrooms to increase pupil numbers to more than 400.

Both headteachers are excited at the developments due to be approved by Blackburn with Darwen council’s executive board on Thursday.

Intack Community Primary School will also get a new nursery for 60 pre-school children, 30 each at morning and afternoon sessions.

Work on two additional classrooms, the kitchen and hall is due to start in May, mainly adapting the existing 1930 buildings.

Over seven years the total numbers at the school will rise from 315 to 420.

At Roe Lee Park Community Primary, the annual intake will rise from 50 to 60, increasing pupil numbers from 350 to 420 over seven years.

The work, due to start in summer, will see two classrooms added to the existing 1929 buildings and improvements to the dining and kitchen areas.

Intack head Rachel Cairney said: “If this gets the go ahead, it will be absolutely brilliant. We have had really positive feedback from parents and the local community. People are already signing up their children for the proposed new nursery.”

Roe Lee Park head Mark Geldard said: “It’s a wonderful opportunity for the school. We have a lot of parents wanting to get their children here. It is a pretty exciting development for the school and the local community.”

In a report to the executive board, council schools’ boss Dave Harling said while demand for primary places across borough had risen by 12.8 per cent, in Roe Lee and Intack it has increased by 29.4 per cent.

He said the cash had been released by the Department for Education ‘to provide additional school places to meet demand for the rising birth rate.