THERE'S great news for aspiring young musicians; after many months of planning and negotiation, work has now started to build a music suite at school.

A new suite is to be built at Beaminster School. It will be situated outside the front of the school looking over the fields towards Beaminster town centre. Through careful design, the new suite will be linked to the drama studio with a shared entrance foyer providing a performing arts area.

The new space will comprise a main foyer, teaching room, four music practice rooms, a recording studio, accessible toilet and storage areas. The project will also enable the area outside the front of school to be carefully landscaped with a terrace, sympathetic hardstanding and wider planting. This will provide a much-needed area for students to socialise at breaks and lunchtime when it is too wet to go on the field.

Mark Carter, chairman of governors, says he is delighted to see the fruition of many hours work by the governors and school.

“After our hugely encouraging Ofsted report, this is a really exciting project that underlines our commitment to the wider, creative curriculum, and enhances the fabric of Beaminster School for the next generation," he said.

The suite is a joint project with the local authority and Mountjoy School to provide increased student capacity in the county for specialist school places, as the Beaminster Music Suite had been incorporated into the footprint of the new Mountjoy School building when they moved from Bridport to Beaminster in 2012. The building of a new, bespoke music facility for Beaminster School will now allow Mountjoy to expand into the vacated areas and provide additional, high quality special school places in the future.

A spokesman for Mountjoy said: "