Parents and residents gathered last Wednesday evening to discuss plans for a new building for Darras Hall First School.

The proposals are being drawn up by Durham architects Howarth Litchfield and Northumberland County Council, and involve creating a new school building on the school’s current sports pitches at the south-east of the school.

If the plans go ahead, the new building is expected to be complete by September 2018.

After that, the exisiting school would be demolished and new sports pitches created.

The consultation was held at Darras Hall First School and Elisa Berry, a director at Howarth Litchfield, was there to help parents and residents with any questions they had.

She said: “This pre-planning consultation is a great way for people in the area to raise any concerns and give their thoughts before we put in a planning application.

“Of course there have been concerns from residents, but that’s what these meetings are held for; so we can accommodate those and make changes.”

In terms of design, Ms Berry explained that the current plans included an ‘activity street’ at the heart of the school, with an atrium above it.

It is intended to be a light, open space with classrooms spreading out from the centre.

She added: “The current building is old and tired and has a lot of problems.

“We understand that there is a lot to consider and people will have concerns, but no matter what we did to the current school, it still wouldn’t be the state-of-the-art school that the children deserve.”

The new school building is proposed to be the home of Darras Hall Primary School, following the county council’s decision to change its status from a three to nine years first school to a three to 11 years primary school.

Schools capital and organisation manager at Northumberland County Council Sue Aviston said: “Generally the feedback about our plans has been very positive.

“We have a really good track record of managing a number of new schools in this way, where the transitions have run very smoothly.

“We don’t expect this to be any different.”

Following the pre-planning consultation, amendments can be made to the proposlas , before Howarth Litchfield submits a planning application to begin work on the school building.