A C of E primary school in Norfolk has obtained planning permission to build a straw-bale classroom.

Pupils at St Andrew’s School in North Pickenham worked with an architect, John Evernett, to provide a practical working space, after investigating building materials from the Iron Age to the medieval period. The school was short of space, and had been given no date for building from the County Council.

The round design combined the architect’s interest in ancient Scottish cranoch villages with pupils’ ideas from Iron Age model roundhouses. The classroom is to stand separately from the present 1950s school building.

The school now has a target figure of £100,000 to ensure that the classroom is built. It hopes work will start in summer 2008. www.northpickenhamprimary.norfolk.sch.uk