CHILDREN in north Dorset have returned to school this term to a state-of-the-art new school building after months of disruption.

Parents of pupils at the Dunbury Primary School were invited along to an open evening at the Winterborne Whitechurch site on Monday to take their first look at the facilities.

Headteacher Simon France said: "I have been here two-and-a-half years now and it is completely different now.

"The staff and the children have put up with a lot of inconvenience and moving about and it is nice to see they are now seeing the benefit of it all.

"It has made a huge difference."

The youngsters at the school make up the majority of children from surrounding villages being educated at three sites that make up the confederated primary, with 114 seven- to 11-year-olds at Winterborne Whitechurch and 93 five- to seven-year-olds being educated at Winterborne Kingston and Winterborne Stickland schools.

The children at Winterborne Whitechurch are the first to get their new building, complete with automatic lights, a lift and radio controlled synchronised clocks, while Winterborne Stickland children are currently in temporary classrooms waiting for their new building to open in November.

The new schools are part of the final stage of the huge shift in education in and around Blandford as schools have moved from a three tier first, middle and upper system to a primary and secondary over the past three years.

As a part of the changeover parents of children at the Dunbury primary are now being consulted on proposed changes to the school's catchment area.

At the moment a small number of children living in the Melcombe Bingham, Ansty and Hilton areas are still within the catchment area to move on to middle school at Puddletown St Mary's, despite Dunbury being identified as their first school.

Dorset County Council proposes moving these areas so future pupils will be within the catchment area of Cheselbourne First School, then linking into Puddletown St Mary's and The Thomas Hardye secondary school in Dorchester.

It is also proposed that children living in Thornicombe will in future be in the catchment area for Blandford St Mary Primary School.

More details on the proposals are available at dorsetforyou.com/ educate/docs or by calling the county council on 01305 228621.