A BOOTHSTOWN headteacher is looking forward to ridding his school of "inadequate" classrooms when £240,000 improvement work begins in March.

This week the go-ahead was given by Salford Council planners for the facelift to St Andrew's C of E Primary School on Vicars Hall Lane.

The improvements -- expected to be completed by September -- will enlarge two existing classrooms and provide a cloakroom and two new small teaching rooms.

Headteacher Peter Simpson said: "This school was built in the early 1970s when open plan was in vogue and because of the design of the day, some of our classrooms are very, very small. So we are remodelling part of the building and extending classrooms to bring them up to today's standards and specifications."

The single-storey extension will be three metres wide and will be across the full length of the southern elevation of the school. In addition a new disabled access ramp and steps will be built.

Although government grants will pay most of the bill for the project, the school will have to raise around £15 -- 20,000.

Mr Simpson said: "This school has suffered from inadequate accommodation and I think that parents, children and staff are looking forward to the improvements."

He slammed the classrooms earmarked for building work as being "wholly inadequate" in their current state for classroom sizes at the moment.

Staff have been busy making preparations so the school's 500 pupils are not disrupted by the construction work.

He said: "We have good contingency plans already in preparation so when work starts we can deploy children in the rest of the building."

However, planning chiefs have stated the development cannot start until details of the colour and type of facing materials to be used for the walls and roof have been approved by the Director of Development Services.

The last construction work at the school was back in 1980 when the school was remodelled with extensions being built to form junior bases, a forum and a nursery unit.