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Major expansion plans to give a Worksop school space for 300 extra pupils have been given the go-ahead.

The expansion at Outwood Academy Portland, on Netherton Road, Worksop, will see three two-storey extensions built onto the school.

The existing dining room and the kitchen will also be extended, alongside landscaping work to the school’s campus grounds.

Nottinghamshire Council has drawn up plans with Outwood Grange Academies Trust in charge of the school in a bid to growing pressure on secondary schools across Bassetlaw.

Outwood Academy Portland was rated Outstanding in April 2014, while a monitoring visit in March 2019 - sparked because of concern 'about the high levels of pupil exclusions in the school and exceptional pupil movements at times other than the end of a phase of education' - recognised the work going on to tackle the issue and highlighted the 'uncompromising focus on creating a culture of high expectations among pupils and staff'.

The school says the expansion follows a “significant level of new housing developments”, which means more children need places – the expansion will increase the number of pupils at the school from 1,500 to 1,800.

This will increase gradually over a number of years and is expected to begin in September 2024, when the first larger cohort of 360 pupils will join, up from 300 currently.

The plans have been approved by the council’s planning and rights of way committee.

Mike Sharp, council team manager for pupil place planning told a meeting of the committee, said: “The number of school places across Bassetlaw is 3,429 for children aged 11-18.

“The planning area has a small insufficiency of school places currently, of 44 places, but due to demographic change and an increase in population, that insufficiency is expected to grow.

“By 2031/32, the insufficiency of places is expected to rise to an under-capacity of 446 places – hence the quest to extend the provision at Portland.”

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Following the committee’s approval, the new buildings, extensions and landscaping can now come forwards, joining new cycle bays, cycle lockers, electric vehicle charging points and extra electric vehicle infrastructure in the car park.

New jobs will also be created through the expansion and will add to the current 111 full-time and 65 part-time staff at the school, which is rated outstanding by education watchdog Ofsted.

The council has confirmed three full-time and one part-time teaching role will be created, alongside a full-time management position.

There will also be two further full-time catering and three other full-time positions, with four part-time catering roles and three more part-time roles created.

There will be eight new classrooms, a new drama studio, a staffroom and toilets.

Coun Philip Owen, a former chairman of the children and young people’s committee and a former teacher, said: “To my mind, this is a no-brainer. Clearly there are going to be significant increases in the number of young people in the area and, therefore, we need more school places.

“The beauty of this is that, because of the work of the Outwood Grange Academies Trust over a number of years, we’re not only creating school places, but creating them at a good school.

“This will enable the lives of young people in the Worksop area to be transformed.”

Danielle Sheehan, academy principal, previously told parents the plans are a “fantastic opportunity for the school”.

She said in November: “We were keen to support this initiative. We consider this a fantastic opportunity for the school as it also allows us to provide a solution to the growing pressure on school places.”

‘No-brainer’ 300-place expansion of Worksop secondary school to go ahead