light.

The Development Applications Board recently approved the plans which include an additional three-storey wing with six classrooms, two toilet/changing rooms, and a health room.

The $2.5 million development -- adjacent to the school's gymnasium -- will allow the school which already has some 300 primary students, to accommodate up to 50 more.

Warwick Academy principal Robert Lennox said excavation for the building had already taken place and construction was expected to begin next month.

"It is a six-to-nine-month project,'' he said. "It should be ready by next September.

The entire car parking arrangements on the eastern side of the school will also be changed to provide more recreational space for the children. There will be a separate entrance and exit for traffic flow.

The board stipulated that in order to provide a safe flow of traffic, access details should conform to requirements of section eight of the Bermuda Plan 1992 Planning Statement.

With the school's student population expected to increase to 750 during the next three years, Warwick Academy also plans to build a new gymnasium, music suite, and to improve its library by the year 2000.

"We just started a fundraising campaign and we hope to get the money from that source,'' Mr. Lennox said. "Obviously it is dependent on that. But we've been confident enough to start work on the primary (school).

"As we've decided to increase the size of the school some primary classes are working this year in some secondary school classrooms. They will go into the new building when it is completed.'' The school -- which reverted to its private status in 1995 as a result of public school restructuring -- opened its primary department five years ago.

It was originally a one-form entry section. But due to a growing demand for places in the primary section the school decided to expand most of the primary level to two-form entry.

The exception is Primary Seven, which will be expanded from two to three forms.

EDUCATION ED