PLANS for a three-storey teaching block to accommodate 300 students at Bradford Academy have been submitted.

The Teesdale Street school has handed in an outline planning application for a new block on site.

The building would feature classrooms, small hall, drama studio, science studio, cafeteria area and learning resource base.

The planning application has been split into two sections. The first is for the three-storey teaching block and the second is for the construction of modular building comprising three classrooms and a lobby and a new dining room extension.

It is the latest stage of the expansion of the school, after the original secondary Academy building was completed in 2007.

In 2010, a primary and junior Academy building was opened.

After it received all-through status, it now caters for 1,765 pupils with ages ranging from three to 18.

This number is set to swell by the 2019/20 academic year, with a total of 1,954 students forecast.

Temporary classrooms are currently on the proposed site of the three-storey building. The applications were submitted to Bradford Council on December 19 last year.

The proposed block would be for community use seven days a week outside of school hours and could be used for sporting activities. It would be open from 7.30am to 10pm weekdays and 9am to 10pm on weekends.

The design statement, submitted with the application, says: "There is the potential for community use as we have included spaces for local groups to meet and a small hall which would be ideal for activities such as badminton.

"Currently we have a high demand for community use in our other spaces.

"This proposal for additional teaching space is for a two storey, part modular, part traditional construction comprising of one lower floor classroom and two upper floor classrooms.

"It will be located at the rear of our primary assembly hall in a little used amphitheatre as shown on the attached location plan and photographs.

"The Academy's post 16 numbers have grown from below 150 in 2007 to 352 currently.

"Our kitchen and dining provision was extended to accommodate the primary pupils but this did not include additional space for the growth in our secondary population.

"In order to address this issue, we propose to extend the kitchen into an adjoining classroom and to increase our dining space."

The deadline for representations on the two applications made to Bradford Council is January 31.

Site notices on the Academy plans were made available on January 5.

No representations have been made on the application yet on the Bradford Council planning website.

Bradford Academy headteacher Gareth Dawkins was unavailable for comment yesterday.