Pupils take GCSEs in Pimlico park

Hundreds of teenagers at a London academy will take GCSEs in a makeshift exam hall in a park this summer after new school buildings were delayed.

Education chiefs have applied for permission to erect a "temporary examination hall" in Pimlico Gardens for Year 11 pupils to sit their exams.

An application to Westminster council, due to be approved today, explains delays in completing the sports hall at the £35.3million Pimlico Academy mean the children have nowhere to take exams.

The permanent hall was due to be ready by Easter but is now set to open in September.

Academy principal Jerry Collins said the temporary building was air-conditioned and sound-proofed: "If someone had offered me this facility with no new building, I would have taken it."

The temporary centre will be put up next month and taken down in June.