EAST Lancashire comedienne Mina Anwar is to lead her old school's bid to become a specialist sports college.

Moorhead High, Queen's Road West, Accrington, will officially launch the bid later this month with the help of the Church-born comedy actress, who starred in The Thin Blue Line with Rowan Atkinson.

Today bosses at the school revealed they hope to attract hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment through the bid, and also to give the local community access to more sporting activities.

Winning specialist status will represent a remarkable turnaround for the school, which only recently had the 'serious weaknesses' tag put on it by inspectors Ofsted removed.

Moorhead has faced problems in recent years, with gang violence erupting at the school four years ago leading to the arrest and suspension of several pupils.

But now the school must raise £50,000 and have their bid accepted by the government's department for Education and Skills.

Cath Wilson, assistant head, said: "We have come out of serious weaknesses. As a result of that we can then go for a specialism, and we have decided to go for a sports college status.

"We have to raise £50,000 and if we do that and are hopefully win the bid the department gives us another £100,000 which we can use to build an Astroturf pitch or whatever we want to do with it.

"It's a lot of money which we can do a lot with to spread sport to the community and to other schools."

The official launch is also set to feature Hyndburn MP Greg Pope and possible local sporting figures.

The bid is to be made following the school's improved GCSE results. Last year 21 per cent of pupils managed to achieve grade A to C, but this year that figure doubled to 42 per cent.

Now the school is hoping to build on its successful drama and PE departments with the specialist status bid.

After the official launch of the bid, on September 29, the school is hoping to have the bid ready by March. The government is then likely to have made a decision by next June.