£4 million expansion planned for George Salter Academy

Dozens of new school places will be created at George Salter Academy in West Bromwich to help meet the high level of demand.

A new building will be created at the Davey Road site, which is expected to include eight classrooms.

The project will also see some existing classrooms refurbished and allow the school to create more specialist provision such as art and design and technology rooms.

The expansion will mean an extra 50 places each year for Year 7, meaning the number of pupils at the school will gradually increase to 250 in each year group.

Headteacher Pank Patel said the expansion was badly needed, with the school struggling to meet demand. The first batch of new places are due to be available for 2019/20, with work on the new building expected to start next year.

Mr Patel said: "I'm really pleased. The school is very much in demand and is heavily over-subscribed.

"It means we will be able to offer the community we serve more places in the school.

"We had around 600 applications for 200 places last year so it is very much welcome.

"It follows on from our 'good' Ofsted so is massive for us. The school is on the up, this is a really positive thing for us."

George Salter is one of several secondary schools in Sandwell which are due to be revamped.

Nearly £11 million is to be spent on expanding schools and building a new one to meet the increasing demand on places.

A total of 1,495 places will be made available by expanding three existing schools, including George Salter, a creating a new site at Kelvin Way in West Bromwich.

Sandwell Council has identified that an extra 3,500 places are needed by 2025, due to a rapidly rising population, accelerated over recent years by increased migration and a baby boom.

It forms the latest stage in the local authority’s expansion project, which has seen a previous £6.6 million investment in expanding primary schools.