Willow Brook Primary in Keyworth is getting £1.2m for new ceilings and lighting, about £6,280 a pupil. The county says the job finishes in autumn 2027.

Willow Brook Primary School in Keyworth is having its ceilings and lighting replaced under a £1.2 million county council scheme, one of 25 school projects sharing more than £15 million this summer.

The school has 191 pupils on roll. That works out at about £6,280 a pupil, which is a large sum for a single building job at a village primary, and it is the reason this one is worth looking at rather than filing under routine maintenance.

Keyworth is about four miles south east of West Bridgford.

What is being done, and when

Nottinghamshire County Council published the scheme on 1 September. Its own wording is that Willow Brook is “one of the dozens of schools to benefit, thanks to a £1.2 million investment to upgrade the school’s ceiling and lighting system”.

The council also gives a completion date, and it is a long way off. Cabinet member for economic development and asset management, Councillor James Walker-Gurley, visited during the summer break to see work that “is due to be completed by Autumn 2027”.

That is a two-year run for a ceiling and lighting replacement at a school of fewer than 200 pupils. The council has not published a phasing plan, so it is not clear from the record whether the work continues through term time, returns each holiday, or covers more of the site than the announcement describes. We have not been able to confirm which from any published source.

The work was designed, delivered and cost managed by Arc Partnership, a joint venture between the county council and SCAPE.

Councillor Walker-Gurley said the programme “is also supporting a wide range of local SMEs through our supply chain”, adding: “This helps us to keep money within the local economy and support family-run businesses across Nottinghamshire.” (Nottinghamshire County Council)

The school itself

Willow Brook is a community primary on Willow Brook, NG12 5BB, taking children aged 5 to 11. The headteacher is Louise Ballard.

The Department for Education’s register records:

  • 191 pupils on roll
  • a capacity of 210, so the school is running 19 places under its limit
  • community school status, with the county council as the admissions authority

(Get Information about Schools)

Ofsted last inspected the school on 27 June 2023 and published its report on 18 September 2023. The overall judgement was Good. (Ofsted)

The wider programme

The £1.2 million at Keyworth is part of the county’s School Building Improvement Programme, which the council says put “more than £15 million” into improvement work at 25 schools over the summer break.

Only two other schemes in the programme have been named publicly. The largest so far is a £2.5 million roof replacement at High Oakham Primary School in Mansfield, done to improve energy efficiency and due for completion in June 2027. Work at a school in Carlton was announced on the same day as the Keyworth scheme.

The council has not published the list of all 25 schools or what each is receiving, so there is no way to tell from the record how many of them are in Rushcliffe. (Nottinghamshire County Council, 18 August 2026)

What it means for you

If your child is at Willow Brook, the practical point is the timescale rather than the money. The council’s own completion date is autumn 2027, so this is not a job that finished over the summer, and parents should expect the school to be working around it into next academic year and beyond. The school itself is the place to ask about access, parking and any room changes while it runs.

If you are choosing a primary in the Rushcliffe villages, the two figures that matter alongside the building work are the Ofsted judgement of Good from June 2023 and the 19 spare places against a capacity of 210.

If you run a small building or electrical firm locally, the council’s stated route into this work is its supply chain through Arc Partnership, which it says is deliberately weighted towards local SMEs.

Sources