PRESSURE is mounting at Oxford primary schools after a surge in pupil numbers has led to shortages of classroom space.

As the new school year gets under way, many pupils face being taught in temporary classrooms put up to meet the demand for places.

The county council says it has been faced with providing an extra 500 school places across the county this month.

The most severe pressure is being felt in schools in East Oxford and Cowley.

School governors have raised concerns about running out of classroom space and the prospect of a generation of primary school children having to be taught in portable buildings.

Some local primary schools have been faced with increasing admission numbers by as much as a third this month, with heads warning demand for places is set to go on rising.

A review has already been carried out at every primary school in the city to establish where it might be possible to expand, with almost half the city’s 15 primary schools found to be physically capable of expanding.

Pip Murray, head of Oxford’s SS Mary and John Primary School, who chairs the Isis Partnership of Schools, said: “We are all very full. I think it has resulted from several factors. We have had our own mini-baby boom in the area and a lot of young families are moving in from outside.”

But with increases in pupil numbers coinciding with Government cutbacks, County Hall is faced with relying on prefabricated buildings.

St Christopher’s, in Temple Road, has seen its admission number having to go up from 45 to 60. With the new academic year just days old, a planning application was approved on Monday by the county council to allow prefab classrooms to go up at the school “for a temporary period of five years”.

A report on the application to the county council planning committee by the County Hall’s head of sustainable development, Martin Tugwell, stressed the severity of the situation.

It said: “The demand for primary school places in Oxford is rising and schools in this area do not currently have sufficient space to cope with demand.”

St Christopher’s, in special measures since May 2009, has, like other city schools, a lengthening waiting list.

Headteacher Alison Holden said: “This school should have 400 pupils. By the time we have finished, it will be 500.

“We will have to have temporary classrooms before we get permanent buildings. We have to be realistic about this.”

Larkrise Primary School is another school in East Oxford that has seen temporary classrooms having to go up.

City councillor David Williams, a governor at the school, said: “If we had not organised temporary building there would have been a substantial knock-on effect, with perhaps up to 30 children having to take up places outside East Oxford.”

A delegation of Larkrise governors met the county council to press for money to be set aside to remodel the school.

Wolvercote Primary School, which saw protests earlier this year when 16 families were initially told the school’s reception class was full, is hoping that proposals for a new classroom will be given the go-ahead.

Headteacher Anna Ballance said: “What worries me is the potential for even more development in our catchment area.”

Michael Waine, county council cabinet member for schools improvement, said: “Due to constraints on our capital programme, the likelihood is provision for basic need is likely to be through temporary accommodation for the foreseeable future.

“Nationally, there has been a rise in applications for primary school places. Government ministers are reported to be looking at making the issue of school places a priority within the spending review.”