An £800,000 appeal has been launched to help fund the new building for Feversham College, Bradford's Muslim girls' school.

Work is due to start on the new purpose-built £8 million home for the school, at Cliffe Road, Bradford. It will have a school hall which faces Mecca and a two-storey foyer with connecting bridges.

At the moment the school is using the cramped premises of the former Swain House Middle School.

As a voluntary aided school it must raise ten per cent of the building costs itself. The rest of the cash will come from the Government.

The Muslim Association of Bradford, promoter of the school, has launched the appeal and is asking its supporters to "buy a brick" for Feversham at £5 a time.

It is also inviting people to make donations and asking companies to sponsor a classroom, which will later carry their name or logo.

Feversham was the first secondary Muslim girls' school in the country to be recognised by the Government and brought under the state system.

It used to be fee-paying but classes are now free and the school is expanding to provide spaces for 600 girls.

The school is fast growing out of Swain House and staff are looking forward to the move to the larger, purpose-built premises.

Liz Storey, the bursar, said: "Obviously we're confident about raising the £800,000 or we wouldn't go ahead. Everybody is working very hard on fundraising."

The new school will be a two-storey, modern building, said architect Alan Priest of Priest Woodward Associates.

"Part of the brief was that it should look like any other ordinary school, because it is an ordinary school," he said.

However, the school hall is set at an angle to the rest of the building because it has been positioned to face Mecca. There are 60 washing positions in an ablution area leading to the hall, so that pupils can wash before prayer times.

Mr Priest said the main foyer will have "quite a nice wow factor" but otherwise the school will look similar to the other new school buildings springing up around Bradford.

Nawaz Khan, of the Muslim Association, said: "Parents, the community and businesses have been raising money for four years because we had to purchase the Cliffe Road site, pay to demolish the old buildings and refurbish the school at Swain House. This is the last push to get the final build completed on time."