PUPILS hope to celebrate their school's 50th anniversary with a concert in a new amphitheatre.

Eaton Park Primary School in Bucknall, which will host a variety of activities to celebrate the anniversary next year, wants to develop its playground and outdoor area.

An amphitheatre with a canopy, seating area and public address system would take centre stage, but other new sections could include flower beds, vegetable plots and a sensory area.

A cover is also needed so that play and learning can continue outside when bad weather comes.

The school has now entered The Sentinel's and Barclays' Class Act competition with the hope of winning one of three £5,000 prizes to make their vision possible.

The school's foundation stage manager Dawn Leese said: "An amphitheatre would help pupils with speaking and listening, which is crucial in schools at their age, and could be used as a vehicle for all the celebratory events.

"We want to take the entire area and use it to give children the opportunity to learn outside.

"The children love singing and dancing and with an amphitheatre they would be able to turn what they learn in literacy into an outside performance in front of their parents.

"They spend an awful lot of time outside so we'd also like a covered area for them to use."

She added: "The children want to be able to go out and dig flowerbeds so we've also thought of planting some flowers in the shape of the number 50 and a sensory area that could help them extend their vocabulary and their experiences."

Entry into the competition follows work on improving the school's key stage two playground last year.

Work there has included having games and activity boards painted on the playground, boards put up on walls to entertain the youngsters at break and lunch times, a buddy spot for children to go to if they are feeling lonely and new bins and benches.

Now the outside of the foundation stage classrooms needs bringing up to scratch.

Assistant headteacher Anne Jones said the school was lucky to have such large grounds and believes learning through play is important.

She thinks an amphitheatre and the other suggested improvements would have a positive impact on all the pupils.

Mrs Jones said: "We want to make learning fun and relevant to the children."