A Dartford secondary school is set to receive some major upgrades if its planning approval submitted to Dartford Council is approved.

A lecture theatre, more learning spaces and female student changing facilities are among some of the proposed benefits Dartford Grammar School for Boys will get if its planning application is approved.

The application has been two years in the making after a series of amendments to the initial proposal were made.

The school’s business manager Nicola Booker said the extension would cater to the expected rise in student numbers.

“At the moment we have over 500 students and as the years going on we anticipate more students, so we’ll need the space,” she said.

“We have in our sixth form the International Baccalaureate Diploma which brings a lot of the students to the school.

“This will make sure we’re still able to teach it and make sure classrooms aren’t overcrowded.”

The current application will increase the floor area of the school by 779 sq metres.

This will include the construction of (among other things) seven new teaching spaces, with one of the formal teaching spaces becoming a lecture theatre.

The Lecture Theatre will not be a designated class space, but used on an intermittent and specialised basis.

Study zones at ground and first floor level will be made for individual study by sixth form students primarily, using laptop computers or other learning aids.

Ms Booker said the school would make sure not to waste the funding that has made this possible.

“We’ve been really lucky with funding applications and we’re an outstanding school so we make sure to get the facilities that people need,” she said.

Don’t expect to be seeing the new buildings in their full until at least 2018 though.

Ms Booker said it would likely be at least 12 months before construction would be complete on the project.