A new, combined primary school for Penryn has been delayed due to legal costs and “contractual arrangements.”

The town’s junior and infant schools had hoped to come together as the newly named Penryn Primary Academy by September this year.

But in a letter home to parents this week the two schools’ headteachers explained that an agreement between the Department for Education and the local authority over who will pay for legal costs had not been made “for a variety of reasons over which we have no control.”

“Even once agreed there will still need to be a few months of legal work until all contractual arrangements are in place and we will be ready to open,” Robin Cowen, from Penryn Junior, and Gillian Wright, from Penryn Infants, said in the joint statement.

“For this reason we are now working towards the new school opening in 2014.”

The two schools will be working closer together in the meantime however, with a “shared planning day” scheduled for the first day of autumn term, September 4.

“Subject leaders from both schools will also be meeting in July to bring our two curriculums together,” the headteachers said.

On July 17 a “special day” is planned for the children from both schools to celebrate the anticipated creation of their new academy.