Jacksdale Primary and Nursery School, in Main Road, has been using the temporary building for foundation pupils for several years.

The school is one of two main early years providers in the village.

However, planning permission for having the building in place is due to expire and the county council has lodged a planning application to keep it in its current form.

This, the authority says, will ensure there will be no shortage of early years places if the classroom ceases to exist.

Papers submitted by the authority to its own planning department, acting as the education authority overseeing the school, confirm it has 52 pupils registered to use the foundation unit.

These children, aged between two and four years old, make up almost 55 per cent of the 95 children in total who require foundation school provision across the Jacksdale ward.

A further 40 of the pupils access education from Westwood Infants and Nursery School, while there are two childminders supporting a total of three children.

However, the council states there are currently no vacant places for children aged two to four in the Jacksdale ward, with the retention of the temporary classroom necessary to ensure 52 places are not lost.

The council said: “Early years providers report that they share their vacancies with Early Childhood Services on a regular basis.

“The latest information informs us that there are zero vacant places for two, three and four-year-olds to access their early years entitlement in the Jacksdale Ward.

“If the foundation unit at Jacksdale School was unable to operate in the future, we would see a sufficiency issue within the ward. The number of vacant places at present indicates that there would be a deficit of 52 early years places.”

The council adds the existing building provides affordable childcare to support families to “work, or train to maximise work opportunities”, which it says helps raise household income and improve outcomes for children.

It states children in workless families are “three times as likely to be in relative poverty” than families where at least one parent works.

And it says the foundation unit offers flexible and accessible education for both families and children, whilst also improving pupils’ cognitive and emotional development between foundation and school years.

Under the planning proposals, which are expected to be reviewed by council officers in the coming months, no changes would be made to the existing temporary building at the Main Road school.