DENSTONE College is set to build a new classroom block if given the goahead by planning chiefs as the school continues to grow.

The educational establishment has applied to East Staffordshire Borough Council to demolish the north changing room to provide a new block for 10 classrooms.

Its states the building has ‘fallen into a measure of disrepair’ and ‘an unsightly unloved building does nothing to present the school well when viewed from the drive as it should be.’

The new block will be a double gabled atrium building with a compact square plan that ‘sits over the footprint of the building it replaces’.

As for the impact on the setting of the college as a listed building, the report states there will be no implications on views of the Victorian building from the drive and it will retain the view of the front gable of the dining room.

The report reads: “There will also be some gain: the ‘part unattractive’ and utilitarian sunken courtyard on the west side of the dining room wing will be better hidden from view than now because it will be behind a bigger two storey building.”

Deputy head James Hartley said: “We have not decided what departments are going to be in the new building yet but the English department would be nicely housed.

“The eight or 10 new classrooms are in response to the way the school has grown in size as we now have 577 pupils.

“It is very much our aim to get our pupils into the university which is their first choice and to get the best out of our pupils and the results speak for themselves.

“The new facility will enhance teaching and will move a number of subjects into a new school building.

“We have recently invested in a £2 million music school which is putting money back into the school which came mainly from fees.

“The plans are still in the very early days and the fine details are yet to be decided.” This will be another major investment for the school after the opening of the £2 million music school earlier this year.

The Roper Music School houses practice rooms, two music classrooms with interlinking recording studio as well as other classrooms complete with stateof- the-art technology.

There are also two history classrooms, a psychology classroom and three IT classrooms in the building.