THE Colne Community School, in Brightlingsea, has unveiled plans for a new classroom block and a nursery.

The school needs to replace outdated buildings and is expecting a surge in numbers after receiving an “outstanding” Ofsted rating.

The classrooms will be in a two-storey building, which will include a kitchen and a nursery, replacing temporary classrooms.

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Nardeep Sharma, principal, said: “It was unfortunate the Government abandoned the Building Schools for the Future Programme when it came into office.

“As we were not scheduled to be rebuilt, we have had to work hard to maintain our building stock.

“We have some buildings not fit for purpose, which we hope we can secure funding for to rebuild, and a speculative application is with the Government.”

The Colne, in Church Road, became the only non-selective secondary school in Colchester and Tendring to attain Ofsted’s top rating after an inspection in March last year.

Mr Sharma, who last October was appointed to help Philip Morant School, in Colchester, for two days a week, said: “As an outstanding school, we have had much interest in applications for places in the school and sixth form. We would not wish to disappoint parents, carers or students by having inappropriate accommodation.”

The school has not yet secured Government funding for the project, but a successful planning application is one of the steps needed to secure cash.

If the scheme gets the goahead, it would take an estimated ten months to build. The school, which has 1,388 pupils, is also refurbishing its sixth form block at a cost of £80,000.