The Norwood School will be expanding to accommodate a 30-place “bulge” class – with two portable cabins acting as classrooms.

This comes as demand for secondary school places across the city surges, with demand for secondary school places in Lambeth expected to increase further in the 2020s.

The five-year temporary expansion at the Norwood School will start this month and be operational by mid-September.

Lambeth Council awarded the £270,000 contract for the purchase and installation of the modular buildings at the secondary school to Portakabin Ltd.

The demand for spaces at the school was “critical” with a short time-frame for a tender process, according to Lambeth Council documents.

“The temporary expansion of Norwood Secondary School was initially agreed in May 2018 and due to the short space of time in which we have had to arrange the tender process, it has become critical to get this project on site as soon as possible” the documents explained.

“The class rooms are modular construction with the majority of the works undertaken off site.

“Whilst units are being constructed enabling works including foundations, hard landscaping, ramps, CCTV and IT will be completed. Installation and final fit out is circa one week.”

During March’s secondary school admissions period, 45 per cent of students were expected to miss out on their chosen school place in Lambeth.

This was behind Hammersmith and Fulham with 49 per cent and Kensington and Chelsea with 46 per cent.

Portakabin Ltd’s temporary classrooms can act as both temporary and permanent buildings, and can be expanded upward to become multi-storey and are a “durable structure”, according to the company’s website.