A MASSIVE £14.5 million building project will transform a Bournemouth academy over the next 18 months.

The Bishop of Winchester Academy in Mallard Road is one of only two Bournemouth schools to benefit from government investment under the Building Schools for the Future programme.

The multi-million pound project will modernise and improve the facilities at the secondary school, as well as expanding it so it can cater for 1,250 students, compared to its current 750. The number of staff employed there will double from 100 to 200 and the school aims to incorporate a sixth form.

The plans will see the demolition of the design technology rooms at the front of the school and the two storey block adjacent to the playing fields.

The school will get a double-height entrance, new ICT suites and classrooms and a landscaped courtyard shared by the hall, dining and sixth form cafe spaces.

There will be a new performance building including a sports hall, a new suite for pupils with Special Educational Needs and a multi-use games area.

“All of the entrances will arrive at a new gathering space in front of the new entrance to the Academy,” the planning application states. “This will be an important new space which will dramatically improve what is currently a poor and unwelcoming way to approach the Academy.”

Head Paul McKeown said: “The pupils here have a real sense of pride in the school and they can’t believe they are getting an investment of £14.5m. Students have been actively involved in the design of the classrooms and once the build is underway, it will be a living classroom in the playground.

“The school is already hugely oversubscribed and with the new build we will go from strength to strength.”

Building work is due to start in the summer and the majority of the new buildings should be ready for use by September 2013. All finishing touches will be completed and contractors will leave the site by spring 2014.