A secondary school has secured £2million to improve sixth-form facilities.

Highams Park School, in Handsworth Avenue, is now planning to build a two-storey block with the central government grant.

The academy has around 500 students aged 16 to 18 enrolled on A Level and BTEC programmes, but facilities are limited, with a temporary classroom used as a common room.

A 1940s gym hall will be demolished to make way for the new building, if it is given the go-ahead.

Proposals include a ground floor lobby, a reception, a refreshments area, a study room, and a seminar room.

The first floor will provide six classrooms that will be used for teaching pupils of all ages.

Headteacher Steve Riches said the new building will benefit the whole school.

He said: "The school has been trying for years to secure funding through a number of bidding rounds to different government funding streams to improve our inadequate accommodation, particularly for the most pressing need, to provide better accommodation for our large sixth form.

"It is great news to hear we have finally been granted money to provide a new centre.

“This will not only help the 6th form but will relieve some of the pressure on rooms that can be used for all pupils in the school."

The Money, from the Education Funding Agency's (EFA) Academies Capital Management Fund, will also be spent on re-roofing some existing buildings.

Head of sixth form, Tom Capewell, has said the new facility will give sixth form students a place they can call their own.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for Highams Park sixth formers' to learn and benefit from a new purpose-built design. It will be the first time they will have an exclusive area that is built just for them."