HOLY Family Primary will be one of the brightest schools around after pupils helped to choose the colours for its new extension.

Work is well under way for the Park North school's £500,000 extension, which is set to open in September.

The infant and junior sections of the school amalgamated in 2001 and the extension will mean the closure of the infants' building which has been sold to a housing developer.

Members of the school council, which is made up of two representatives from each class, were given the chance to choose the colours for a corridor, communal area and the toilets.

Acting headteacher Susan Smith said: "The children will be the people who spend all of their time in the building so we thought it was only right that they have a say in how it looked. I was amazed by how professional the school council was.

"They didn't argue they just discussed what colours they liked and took a vote."

School council member Claire Netley, 11, from Covingham, said: "I wanted some in-your-face colours in the corridor because we were told it was a dark space that needed brightening up.

"We all made the decision but I feel pleased I was part of it. My little sister will start school here in a few years time so I'll come back and see whether they have messed it up or kept it nice and clean.

"The boys all wanted the girls toilets to be pink but we made sure they were apricot."

Tomasz Bucko, 11, from Kingsdown Park, said: "I enjoyed debating the choice of colours, we were very civilised. One person would choose a colour then someone else might disagree and we would hold a vote on it."