A SCHOOL received a double boost as a £2.5million windfall to build new facilities accompanied news that it could be bringing A-levels back to Hyndburn.

St Christopher's, in Queens Road West, Accrington, received the Department of Education grant to accompany £250,000 raised by the school over five years.

The money will provide a new sports hall, library and resource area, ICT and technology facilities, a performing arts and art suites and common room. Work will start in May next year and should be finished by Christmas.

The high school's governors are also drawing up plans to take over the old Moorhead High School building next door and open up a sixth form centre.

Teenagers have had to travel out of the borough to study A-levels after Accrington and Rossendale College dropped its courses last September because of a lack of demand.

The new proposal, which could see A-levels return in two years, follows the completion of a government feasibility study into restoring A-levels to the borough, published in July.

The news comes four months after the former Moorhead building was hit by a suspected arson attack that destroyed three classrooms.

The education authority Lancashire County Council put the 1960s building up for sale after Moorhead High School moved into its new £4million site last September.

St Christopher's headteacher Alasdair Coates said: "The money will let us teach a 21st century curriculum in 21st century facilities.

"We raised nearly a quarter of a million pounds through fund raising and through donations from parents. Nearly every parent has given something which will not only benefit their children but future generations as well. They have done marvellously.

"The government report said there were 440 sixth form students who travel outside Hyndburn to study. There is therefore a viable number for A-level study. The need is very clear.

"Now that the numbers are known, I think it is an opportunity for a new start at a new establishment. In last year's figures from the National Foundation of Education Research 45 per cent of our pupils were projected to get grades A* to C. In reality 65 per cent got this.

"We are not here to challenge the likes of Blackburn College but we get more out of each pupil by pulling them up one-and-a-half grades."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "We are aware of school's ideas and we look forward to having the plans once they have developed them."

Councillor Peter Britcliffe, leader of Hyndburn Council, said: "It would be extremely good news to have A-level education back in Hyndburn, and the council will do everything possible in support."