Holywell pupils find temporary new home after fire damages their school

Children whose school was damaged by fire have found a temporary new home.

Fire broke out at Holywell Primary School in Tawstock, near Barnstaple, last month and was traced to an electrical fault.

The 83 pupils, along with with children from the nursery, temporarily moved into Orchard Vale Primary in Barnstaple until the end of the Christmas term.

But they have now been welcomed into spare classrooms at Roundswell Community Primary while repairs are completed at Holywell.

Both Holywell and Orchard Vale are part of the Ventrus Multi-Academy Trust, but Roundswell belongs to the Tarka Learning Partnership.

The two trusts are currently discussing joining together to form a new trust with other Devon schools.

Tarka’s chief executive Richard Light said: “Our mission is to empower aspiration and learning for North Devon.

“In this spirit of working together for the best interests of children across our region, we are very pleased to be able to offer support to the staff and pupils of Holywell School.

“We have made available three classrooms at Roundswell so Holywell pupils’ education can therefore continue uninterrupted in a safe environment while work is done on their own school.

“Roundswell has space available because, having opened in September 2020, it currently only has classes up to the Year 3 age group and therefore isn’t yet at full capacity.

“We have a beautiful new school equipped with excellent facilities and we’re delighted that the classrooms can be put to good use in this way.

“We welcome our visiting children, colleagues and families. They’ve all have settled in quickly and already feel safe and at home."

Holywell headteacher Robinne Lowrey added: “Our families and the local school community were so supportive with offers of help following the fire.

“We are very grateful to Ventrus and Orchard Vale for organising our temporary accommodation before Christmas and we are equally grateful to Tarka for offering us this longer-term temporary accommodation.

“We will be using the vacant classrooms at Roundswell and the children will be taught by their usual teachers.”