A NEW £2.4m unit at a Malvern school will include a pioneering environmentally- friendly ventilation method.

The system, which replaces industrial air conditioning, will form part of a new unit at Dyson Perrins CE High School.

The ventilation method will feature four circular chimneys on the roof of the building, which will suck up air caused by draughts in the school's corridors and classrooms, creating a natural air-conditioning effect.

Malvern Hills District Council's southern area planning committee granted the school permission to build the block on Monday.

The project will include new information and communication technology (ICT) classrooms, space for performing arts, a careers suite and a new sixth-form centre.

The windcatchers will enable the ground-floor rooms to be ventilated naturally and quietly.

Andrew Peasgood, principal architect at Worcestershire County Council, said rooms on the first floor will have other means of ventilation, such as windows on opposite sides creating a cross-ventilation system.

"The windcatchers will be on the roof of the building and will take advantage of the stack effect of air movement," he said.

"Warm air rises up the towers and wind passing over the roof creates a negative pressure, which pulls the air out. The windcatchers will go directly into the ground-floor classrooms which cannot use cross-ventilation."

The school, in Yates Hay Road, is one of the first in the county to have the windcatchers.

They are part of a strategy to make new school buildings more environmentally sound.

The plans received the support from the committee who said the scheme was environmentally friendly.

Councillor David Williams, a member of the committee which approved the scheme, said: "Windcatchers are a much more sustainable scheme than having electric motors driving fans.

"I am glad to see the school is having some investment. Numbers are rising - let's make it a good local school."

Work on the building is due to start next summer.

"We have always said we would do all we could to make it as environmentally friendly as possible," said headteacher Peter Buchanan.

"We make the school cheaper to run and provide fresh oxygen for the schoolchildren.

"We hope this will encourage them to 'think green'."