SOUTHEND’S biggest school has been given planning permission to expand, with a brand new classroom block.

Shoeburyness High School is keen to replace outdated temporary buildings with a block offering six large, modern classrooms and a workshop for vocational courses.

The school is an academy, independent of council control, and so has to apply to the Goverment for funding for the scheme.

Documents submitted with the planning application explained the 1,380-pupil school was full up, with a “healthy” waiting list.

Southend Council has given planning permission for the project, paving the way for the school to apply to the Government’s Education Funding Agency for the cash to go ahead with it.

Shoebury Independent borough councillor Anne Chalk, a former physics teacher at Shoeburyness High, said: “This is wonderful.

“The staff are great and the school is getting better and better.

“It provides education for children of all talents, not just the extra-bright pupils. Alot of them go on to university.”