Blackpool school Park Community Academy submits planning application for a new classroom

Park Community Academy on Whitegate Drive submited a planning application last week for the "erection of a single storey building for use as a classroom and provision of decking to front and side of building."

The planning application form goes on to describe how the proposed new classroom will consist of a "stand-alone modular building and decking", its walls will be made out of timber cladding, and its size will be 54 square metres.

The planning documents also show that the building will be located on grassland, next to the school's woodland area.

When approached for further details on the school's planned expansion, Park Community Academy confirmed this new classroom would be an "outdoor classroom."

In a statement the school said: "The outdoor classroom will provide additional classroom space whilst all the exciting building work is going on across the site. Once the building projects are complete the additional classroom would be used as an 'outdoor classroom' to support our forest school and learning outside the classroom methodology."

The school also confirmed that work on the classroom will take place in July and August of this year.

Park Community Academy is a special school which provides education to pupils aged two to 19 with a wide range of special educational needs and disabilities.

It currently has 328 pupils on its role, according to its latest Ofsted report which was published in November 2023.

Park Community Academy was rated "outstanding" in this report, a grade it was also given in its last two Ofsted reports in 2018 and 2015.