ELEVEN schools in Pendle will receive a share of £333,000 during the next three years to help them improve their standards of achievement.

Four high schools and seven primary schools will benefit from the extra cash, which has been made available from the Government's Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

Pendle Council has been awarded £4.5million over the three years from the fund to tackle social, health, educational and economic issues affecting the poorest areas of the borough.

The money for the schools will be spent on resources such as more Special Support Assistants, who support pupils in classrooms with basic skills work, books, improvements to the outdoor environment of schools, outreach workers to work with pupils and families at risk, or the creation of a study support centre.

Twenty-five bids were received from schools and a selection of those were chosen by Lancashire County Council's education adviser Phil Wood, and recommended to the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

High schools selected to receive funding are Mansfield and Walton, in Nelson, and Primet and Fisher More, Colne, who will receive £173, 269 between them during the remainder of this financial year to March, 2002/03 and 2003/04.

A total of £160, 268 will be distributed among the primary schools, which are Holy Saviour, Marsden, St John Southworth and St Philips, Nelson and Primet and West Street, Colne, as well as Whitefield Infants.

Brian Astin, Pendle Council's corporate policy manager, said: "One of the targets set by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund is to increase the percentage of pupils obtaining five or more GCSEs at grades A to C to at least 38 per cent in every local education authority by 2004. The money should help."

David Farrant, headteacher of Walton High, said: "I am very pleased that the money is being given over a three-year period because then we can plan ahead, whereas if it is a one-off payment for a year, you struggle to sustain it after the funding has gone.

"We have quite a difference between the performances of the boys and girls and are looking at ways of getting them more involved in school life through activities such as sport.

"We have already got involvement with youth and community workers and have a bilingual liaison officer, but we need more. We want to build on the success we already have and this money will help towards funding another youth worker and a bilingual mentor, who will help the Asian heritage families to understand more about the way the school works."

Councillor Azhar Ali, leader of the council, said: "The council is continually looking at ways of securing extra funding, particularly to tackle the real challenges facing our poorest areas. This is an important partnership between Pendle Council and the county council, which is trying to address the Government's strategy on education."

Coun Tim Ormrod, the county council's member on Pendle Partnership, said: "I think that this is an excellent outcome of two authorities, Pendle Borough Council and Lancashire County Council, coming together in partnership to deliver mainstream services for the benefit of residents in these wards."

Over the next three years, the total amounts going to each school are: Mansfield High, £42,375; Primet High, £39,000; SS Fisher and Thomas Moore RC High, £43,144; Walton HIgh, £48,750.

Holy Saviour RC Primary, £1,000; Marsden Community Primary, £2,800; Primet Primary, £28,500; St John Southworth RC Primary, £1,000; St Philip's CE Primary, £55,990; West St Primary, Bid 1, £69,976 and Whitefield Infants, £1,000.