A HIGH school was celebrating today after being named one of the first specialist business and enterprise colleges in the country.

Ivy Bank High School, Burnley, will receive £600,000 of extra Government funding over the next three years for more staff and resources to make it one of only 18 in the country providing a focus for entrepreneurial excellence.

Specialist colleges are hand-picked by the Government after schools have prepared bids for the cash the designation attracts. In Blackburn, Our Lady and St John High School will become an arts college.

Ivy Bank will now develop a curriculum aimed at preparing its students for successful careers in business and commerce.

The move has been welcomed after major job losses in the town in the last two years.

Ivy Bank had to prepare a four-year development plan and raise £50,000 in sponsorship from the local business community.

Schools Standards Minister David Miliband said today: "There are now one million pupils in specialist schools in the UK. It is a real milestone."

Ivy Bank headteacher Stephen Ball said: "We're all absolutely thrilled. The investment that the school will now make in the school will enable us to deliver an exceptionally ambitious programme of improvement that will benefit the whole community and contribute to the regeneration of the town as a whole."

He praised Burnley's business community which pledged £50,000 to support the bid and which would be involved in delivering the plans to make the new college one of the most innovative and exciting in the country.

He added: "Students in the school will soon notice a major difference. As well as benefiting from a range of business courses and an IT-rich environment, they will be running their own major business."

The school plans to modernise its uniform and to build retail premises from which it will be sold. Each student will be a shareholder and there will be a board of student directors.

Ivy Bank will also work in partnership with other East Lancashire schools to provide business opportunities for students and with community-based organisations to provide training opportunities for adults.

Mr Ball added: "The school will be required to produce regular updates for the Department for Education and Skills on all the demanding targets that it has set itself."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "This is great news for the school. They put a great deal of work into putting this bid together.

"It will benefit not only Ivy Bank, but also other local schools."

In Blackburn, Our Lady and St John RC High School headteacher Michael Humphreys, who retires at the end of the summer term, hailed arts college status as a great honour for his staff , students and the whole of Blackburn with Darwen.

Education Secretary Estelle Morris said last week she wanted to see a "new comprehensive ideal", where specialist schools fostered "a culture characterised by high expectations, collaboration and innovation."