Children at a village school on the edge of Bath will be returning to new facilities this week.

Work to modernise Bathford Primary School has been completed as projects to improve Batheaston and Weston All Saints primary schools move into a new stage.

The three schemes – along with a fourth in Midsomer Norton – add up to an £8.8 million investment package by Bath and North East Somerset Council.

Its children's services cabinet member Councillor Chris Watt (Con, Midsomer Norton Redfield) said: "This is an exciting time for the primary schools that are either on the verge of seeing their improved school buildings completed or about to start construction. The council, alongside school staff and governors, is helping to change the lives of young people for the better through 21st-century building standards."

The council said it was working to ensure that the impact of all the construction was minimised and it stressed than the projects were unaffected by Government grant reductions.

The £750,000 project at Bathford has removed two temporary buildings and developed a new hall, kitchen and reception area.

The school has wanted to replace its hall for 14 years and the facelift will make holding assemblies and organising lunches much easier.

The wait for money has been almost as long at Weston All Saints, where governors have long wanted to replace two temporary classrooms.

Planning permission was granted in July for a £3.6 million scheme to build a new block of classrooms for Key Stage 2 pupils as well as significant improvements to accommodation for Key Stage 1 children.

The project, which will see the demolition of the old junior block and new landscaping, will start this month with completion of the new buildings by August next year and the whole scheme finished that November. The main part of the £2.1 million scheme to build new classrooms and a hall at Batheaston will start this month, with the project also including the creation of a new forest education centre featuring amphibian homes, dormouse nests, an amphitheatre, a storytelling circle, fire pit, and a large sculpture of a newt.

It will replace a temporary building used as the school hall and two old classrooms.