PLANS to expand a Sale primary school - to meet growing demand - have been rubberstamped by council officials.

Extra places have been required for the east of the town for some time, according to school bosses.

And with a large-scale overhaul of housing needs in Sale East, and smaller developments at Broad Road, Cross Street and Northenden Road, the case for change has been growing.

Long-held proposals to extend Worthington Primary have now been endorsed, bringing the school’s annual admission rate from 45 to 60.

Councillors have been told that by September 2023 the capacity for the schools will have risen from 315 to 420 pupils.

Blueprints for a two-storey extension, at a cost of £2m, were approved by the borough council’s planning committee last March.

Jill McGregor, the council’s corporate director for children’s services said in a report: “Schools in the Sale East planning area are significantly oversubscribed, particularly in upper year groups a result of movement into the area outside the normal admission round.”

Last March saw every school in the district reach its published admission number for every year group, with the exception of three, which had a number of vacancies in reception.

The possibility of extending Worthington Primary’s roll had been on the cards since at least early 2018, when their catchment area was combined with Templemoor Infants and Moorland Juniors.