What started as an after-school club to help children gain confidence in social skills has turned into a huge sprawling campus of the performing arts.

Bradford's premier arts school has got better and brighter with a revamp at the old fire station in Idle where it is based - and it is set to continue.

And as well as new dance studios, dance rooms, scenery making department, offices, changing rooms and a parents waiting room, there will be a new wardrobe department that children from schools across Bradford will be able to use for their productions.

Val Jackson, who runs the school with her husband Peter, said: "It wasn't really supposed to be so successful but now we just seem to be getting bigger and bigger."

The revamp of the former fire station in Town Lane took two years and cost a whopping £151,000 - most of which came from the National Lottery. The rest was funded privately.

Mrs Jackson said: "We started off with a few children after school but it grew and grew and now we have 32 part-time staff and between 350 to 400 students."

And the revamp is set to continue. A 17th century chapel has been converted into a dance and drama studio and next on the list is to turn an old library into a state-of-the-art music centre where students can learn to play a host of instruments and perform.

"Everybody who has seen the refurbishment has been very impressed. It looks wonderful now," said Mrs Jackson, a former teacher.

"It's a real mix of old and new. As well as the up-to-the-minute equipment that we've put in the building has the original stained glass and some of the original flooring. It is very special and it does impress the casting directors who come up from London."

Rehearsals are now taking place for the King & I to be performed at the Alhambra later in October followed by a trip to the Millennium Dome to present Bradford's story- a pageant of the city's last 100 years.