Plans have been lodged to renovate a Northumberland school which was saved from closure last year.
In May 2018, Northumberland County Council agreed to step in to rescue Haydon Bridge High School, which is in special measures, following the withdrawal of Bright Tribe Trust as academy sponsor.
The decision came as part of the overhaul of education in the west of the county and the local authority pledged a £1.54million rescue package as well as taking on the school's £600,000 debts.
The council also earmarked £3.1million to invest in buildings and facilities at the high school and a planning application for these works has now been submitted.
As well as renovation and upgrades inside, it seeks permission for a redesign of the front of the school with a new entrance canopy, a revised car park and entrance layout with extra spaces, and two new sports pitches.
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A design and access statement by Gradon Architecture, who were commissioned by the county council for this scheme, says: 'The renovation seeks to provide an improvement and overhaul of the existing school buildings to create a more attractive study and working environment through internal amendments and new external site and landscaping to boost the pupil attendance numbers in the catchment area, which incidentally is the largest in England.'
The proposals include converting the existing design and technology block into a new vocational centre to the rear with an out-of-hours entrance arrangement, so that it can be used for adult education classes during the evenings.
This centre will include a new toilet facility, with six new unisex toilets and a disabled-access toilet. In the school itself, enhanced disabled WC facilities have been included into the ground floor of block two to address the needs of future students.
Other changes inside would also result in a relocated library, learning resource centre, sixth form area and performing arts spaces.
There will be an additional 21 parking spaces, on top of the existing 40, which are to be arranged to the front of the building along with space for 10 coaches during drop-off/pick-up, up from five.
Two new multi-use games areas (MUGAs) are proposed to the north of the car park.
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