The Helston Packet can reveal the first images of what the new £17 million Helston Community College will look like.

All but the separate, newer languages block will be replaced on the North Site, with a new three-tier building taking in C-Block (maths and English), D-Block (science and PE) and E-Block (technology).

It will include a large sports hall and separate assembly hall, with the reception area and hall among the facilities built at ground level and then classrooms built both above, on the first floor and below, on a lower-ground level, due to the slope of the ground.

On first arrival visitors will arrive into an atrium and be able to see learning taking place around them.

The building will be set back further from the road than the existing facilities, built on what is currently the first tier of the sports field.

This will mean students can continue using the current classrooms while work on the new school takes place.

Some students will even be able to get involved in helping build their new classrooms, with work experience being planned for the college's BTEC construction students.

Once teaching has moved into the new building, the old classrooms will be knocked down and replaced with a youth pitch, to go alongside the existing multi-use games area (MUGA) and replace the lost section of sports field.

A planning application is due to be drawn up imminently and provided permission is granted the plan is to begin building this August, with the aim of opening the new building in January 2019.

The building is then expected to last for at least 35 years and is in a location that would allow further development to take place, to bring all the facilities on one site rather than be split with South Site, should more funding be found in the future.

Executive headteacher Donna Bryant said: "We're absolutely delighted and very excited about the plans. It's been a long time coming.

"We were really keen that the design reflected the fact we are a community school and we work with our community. We wanted it to be open and welcoming."

She added that the school "can't wait for it to get started now," adding: "I think this is the building that Helston has deserved for a long time."

Head of college Wayne Jenkins described it as an "exciting learning environment," adding: "I just think it will give the students, the staff and the whole community a real lift."

Although the government's Priority School Building Programme, which is funding the work, is fixed in what it will allow to be built, students will now be able to get involved in the aesthetics, such as colour designs.

BAM Construction have been chosen as the preferred contractors and representative Phil Bailey assured parents that disruption would be kept to an absolute minimum while building work took place.

Deliveries would be time outside of the main peak hours of school drop off and pick up, to limit congestion, and there would be a separate construction site entrance, he said.

It was back in February 2015 that then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg visited the school to reveal it would receive millions of pounds to update what he described as "passed their sell-by date" buildings.

The college was originally due to receive money under a similar government programme, Building Schools for the Future, which was subsequently cancelled.

Then, in 2014, Cornwall Council revealed it was unable to find the £10 million it had agreed in principle, to help the college rebuild C-Block – a building where in the past windows have had to be screwed in over safety fears and there is asbestos in the walls.