THIS is how a crumbling Southampton secondary school is set to be transformed following a multi-million-pound makeover.

These are the first artist’s impressions of how Bitterne Park secondary school will look after a £20m re-build project.

The site on Copsewood Road will be unrecognisable by 2018, should the plans be approved by council bosses after a planning application was officially lodged.

After several false starts, the government finally agreed to fund the work in response to the demand for more school places in the city and the necessity to replace the 50-year-old building which is in parts dilapidated.

The transformation of the school site will include a new three-and-a-half storey teaching block with improvements in the sports and social spaces throughout.

The plans also include 80 new teaching classrooms and a purpose-built assembly hall which can be used as a theatre with seating for 360 students.

A new dining space is also included with fully-fitted kitchen, new performance and sporting facilities, improved student toilets, a large Learning Resource Centre and numerous meeting and group working spaces.

Headteacher Susan Trigger said she was delighted to be involved in the design and vision for the new Bitterne Park School.

She added: “It is vital to ensure the excellence of what we currently deliver is continued in a new state-of-the-art environment. Our expansion into a new school reflects the huge demand for places at Bitterne Park School and will allow even more students to experience the ‘can-do attitude’ and aspiration that is the norm at Bitterne Park School”.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, Bitterne Park missed out on funding for the redevelopment several times before finally securing the cash at the end of 2014.

Since then teachers, council staff and architects have been working with the government to come up with the right design that will provide the community with a modern-day school with state-of-the-art facilities.

It also needs to accommodate a growth in pupil numbers in the coming years with capacity for an extra 300 11 to 16-year-olds, taking pupil numbers to 1,800.

The school will stay open while the building is constructed on its Copsewood Road site. The existing building will then be demolished and replaced by playing fields.

Residents have previously raised concerns about potential traffic issues around the new build, owing to the number of on-site parking spaces.