THE new £4 million extension for Melksham Oak Community School is likely to be high on the news list for the editors and trainee reporters in its new journalism club.

The club is training Year 7 pupils to find and write stories about students, staff and people in the local community with help from professional journalists and editors.

Headteacher Alan Henderson said: “The young students have blown us away with their enthusiasm and talent.

“We look forward to seeing all the brilliant stories over the months to come.”

High on their news list is likely to be the new school extension on which work will start around April 2020 and complete by May 2021.

The extension will enable the 1,260-pupil school extend its facilities to provide places for a further 240.

Harry Thorpe, of Footprint Architects in Bournemouth, says they have developed a scheme to create a new teaching block to the north-east of existing buildings.

He said: “It will accommodate a new maths classroom, science laboratories, dining facilities, and sixth form, which is to be relocated from the existing building.

“The proposed teaching block will be constructed in two phases and will have a total gross internal area of 1,836 square metres.

“It will allow the school to provide a 10-form entry with capacity reaching up to 1,500 places. The post-16 capacity will increase up to 240 places.”

Currently, the school has sufficient funding to construct phase one of the building, which will provide the necessary accommodation to facilitate the school’s expansion to 1,500 pupil places.

As further funding becomes available, then phase two, allowing the post-16 expansion, will be constructed as a single storey extension to the north-east corner of the building, to provide a 68 sq metre sixth form study area.

The proposed parking allocation has been calculated and designed based on the total occupancy for phase 2.

The proposed building is to be integrated within the existing School’s ‘mini town’ concept. A new town ‘square’ will be formed at the entrance to link the building with the existing school.

A covered canopy will be provided from the existing sports hall corridor to the new building. The existing open playing fields are to be retained to maintain the link between existing central courtyard and the open fields beyond.