WORK on a million pound project to provide eight new classrooms at Malvern’s biggest school will be getting underway this summer.

Staff and students at the Chase School are celebrating a £850,000 grant from the Education Funding Agency to replace the mobile classrooms that have been steadily springing up at its Geraldine Road site as numbers on the roll increase.

The school, which was able to bid for the funding due to its academy status, will be contributing £120,000 of its own funds to build a new two-storey teaching block housing eight new classrooms.

Delighted headteacher Kevin Peck said it will be a busy few weeks for the school, which will be seeking planning permission and then going out to tender so work can begin at the start of the summer holidays.

The project should be completed by the end of the financial year in March.

“We are absolutely delighted,” said Mr Peck. “It will be a real boost for everyone at the school and it is very heartening for us to be chosen to receive this funding against some tough competition.” The Chase was originally opened in 1953 with capacity for about 600 students.

But numbers have now soared to 1,600 and Mr Peck said mobile classrooms have been used to accommodate classes for more than a decade.

The school is planning to dedicate the new block to humanities, with knock-on benefits for all subjects.

“By doing that it means we will be able to turn the whole of the original classroom block to maths, giving that its own identity,” said Mr Peck. “The ability to create an identity for a department is really important for the morale of the staff and how the students respond to it. The dedicated science block – our last major project five years ago – has really boosted the status of science and we hope this will have the same impact.”

There are currently seven mobile classrooms at the school.

Four which are “pretty ropey” will be removed, but three in better condition could be retained to further boost the school’s capacity.

A second bid to the Education Funding Agency, for cash to refurbish and expand PE facilities, was unsuccessful. Mr Peck said that was “disappointing” but that the school will apply again next year.