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

Many children now face being taught in temporary classrooms.

Oxfordshire County Council said it needed to provide an extra 500 school places in the county this month, particularly in East Oxford and Cowley, because of large numbers of new families moving into the area.

School governors raised concerns about running out of classroom space and the prospect of a generation taught in portable buildings.

Some primary schools were faced with increasing admission numbers by as much as a third, with heads warning demand for places was 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 of them found to be able to do so.

But with increases in pupil numbers coinciding with Government cutbacks, it appears County Hall is relying on prefab buildings to avert a classroom crisis.

St Christopher’s Church of England School, in Temple Road, saw admission numbers go from 45 to 60.

With the new academic year days old, an application was approved on Monday by the council’s planning committee, to allow prefab classrooms to go up at the school “for a temporary period of five years”.

A report by County Hall’s interim head of sustainable development Martin Tugwell said: “The demand for primary school places in Oxford is rising and schools in this area do not have sufficient space to cope.

“A prefabricated double modular classroom unit is proposed to meet the increased accommodation needs as of September 2010, as there is insufficient space within the existing school buildings to accommodate the extra pupils.”

St Christopher’s has 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 are trying to help the local community.

“The upshot is that the children are here and we are accommodating them.”

Larkrise Primary School, in Boundary Brook Road, is another school in East Oxford where temporary classrooms have gone up.

City councillor David Williams, a governor at the school, said: “If we had not organised extra 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 county education chiefs to press for money to be set aside to remodel the school.

A spokesman said the rise in numbers was not a temporary blip but a sustained increase.

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

Michael Waine, county cabinet member for schools improvement said: “Due to constraints on our capital programme, the likelihood is that the 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 into making the issue of school places a priority within the spending review.

“Despite this, every child in Oxfordshire has a school place and the number of parents getting their first preference of school is still very high, with 96 per cent of applicants receiving one of their three preferences for primary school and more than 97 per cent for secondary school.”