EXCITING new plans to replace Machynlleth’s Ysgol Bro Hyddgen have been shown to The Powys County Times.

Work to build the new £23 million campus should be started by construction company Dawnus early next year.

The new building should be open by September 2020, bringing the primary school and secondary school pupils all together under one roof.

And the new school is set to be the first in the UK designed to meet Passivhous accreditation which means it will have high energy standards, significantly reducing energy needed for heating and cooling, cutting the school’s CO2 emissions.

The current sixth form building at the school, opened by former First Minister of Wales, the late Rhodri Morgan back in 2009, is of a similar Passivhous design.

Headteacher Dafydd Jones said: “The school will be the first one in the UK to have a Passivhous design. So we will have the both first Passivhous building built in the UK here as well as the first school.

“This present building will be demolished and will eventually become a car park and there will also be a 3G pitch and the new school building will be in the fields beside the school.

“We hope that the first digging works will start next January and building the school should take around 18 months.”

The primary school campus currently has 184 pupils and 25 members of staff who will be brought onto the site once the building is completed.

“It’s great news for us.

“It’s a very exciting time for us as this building is past its sell by date. We haven’t been able to spend anything on the building for three or four years.

“It will also bring both school campuses together, the primary school is a mile up the road and it will enable us to work on interesting projects, work closer and share staff and teaching the new curriculum for Wales is being brought in and this will help us introduce it to the pupils, in a much better way than we’re currently doing it.”

The company chose to turn the vision into reality is Dawnus. They have already delivered a number of school construction projects across the country and are working with the council on the £13 million project to build two new primary schools in Welshpool.