CAMS Lane County Primary School will stage a double celebration today (Fri Oct 5).

Although the school was 25 years old last year, extensive improvement work meant it was impractical to mark its silver jubilee.

So headteacher Mr Gerald Ashforth waited until the £330,000 renovation was complete before holding the celebrations.

The improvements to the school came about following an Ofsted report which criticised the school for being too small and which said its size restricted how pupils worked and limited their progress.

But £235,000 was made available from the Government's New Deal for Schools programme towards two new classrooms, cloakroom facilities, a new toilet block, a complete internal refurbishment and a fenced outside play area.

Mr Ashforth said: "While the work was being done the place looked like Beirut so we decided to wait so that we could celebrate the new look school and the anniversary at the same time."

Around 80 past and present numbers of staff will attend the celebration, including the very first headteacher, Mr David Pritchard.

Originally the celebration was scheduled to take place on September 14, but that coincided with the European day of mourning following the tragedy in America.