A HIGH school in Burnley is bidding to become the first in the country to be declared a business and enterprise college.

Ofsted inspectors have praised Ivy Bank High School, Byron Street, for its superb links with the local business community and at a breakfast launch headteacher Stephen Ball announced the school's plans.

Other schools already have special college status for subjects such as language, technology and sports status, but the criteria for the new classifications of business and enterprise and engineering and science have yet to be finalised by the government.

As soon as the criteria is released in a Government White Paper, Ivy Bank is hoping to be on the ball and has already put together a bid and raised the necessary £50,000 to prove to the authorities it is serious and has the support of business partners.

If successful, Ivy Bank will be among the first to gain the accreditation and will receive £400,000 extra funding over four years.

Mr Ball said: "If the school is successful we would be able to bring in a range of vocational courses at GCSE level for children who may have a lesser academic ability.

"It would mean the school would be teaching students on the academic route as well as working with local businesses to ensure children have the ability and the kinds of skills needed for the workplace. "Courses could also be tailored to suit the needs of employers. We already have links with Time Computers, Baxi, FH Brown and local banks and commerce in a variety of ways, both in providing sponsorship, providing rewards and incentives to reward behaviour and releasing staff to work with students on particular projects in the school."

He said he was not aware of how many other schools would be interested in bidding for the status but he understood it was likely to be popular.

At the meeting Mr Ball reviewed the achievements of Ivy Bank in the last year including the successful Ivy Bank Radio Station which was sponsored by HSBC Bank and 22 other companies.

The station was so successful HSBC, EMI, Lancashire County Commercial Services and Education and Business Partnership have now backed the school to start its own internal radio station which will be launched in the next couple of weeks.

In addition, pupils are soon to be mentored by adults through on-line conferencing where the business people will no longer have to leave their place of work to help students, they will be given a web-cam and connected by a computer to the school.