A FIRE-RAVAGED school has been boosted by nearly half a million pounds towards the replacement of burnt out classrooms.

The Government yesterday approved £450,000 towards the permanent replacement of the temporary classrooms at Horsforth School which were destroyed by fire in early March.

Four classrooms housed in portable cabins were destroyed and two others gutted in the fire, leaving the school to initially create emergency classrooms in corridors until more satisfactory arrangements could be made.

Plans are now being drawn up for the school to rise from the ashes with architect-designed classrooms, work rooms and social areas together with a post-16 centre for sixth formers.

Horsforth MP Paul Truswell said he was delighted with the funding. After the fire, he had met the then Education Minister, Jacqui Smith, to press the case for urgent help for the school and as a result, senior civil servants from the Department for Education and Employment contacted Leeds Education Authority inviting a special bid for funds.

Mr Truswell said: "Space at the school was tight even before the fire wrecked six temporary classrooms - leaving it under even greater pressure. Horsforth School is rightly very popular and its accommodation was already under great pressure before the fire.

"The portable buildings were inadequate in terms of space and condition, but their destruction intensified the problems even further."

Mr Truswell said he was delighted that Ministers had responded to his lobbying. "Their decision, added to funding from other sources, will enable the school to create more teaching space in permanent accommodation."

Head teacher Steve Jex said it was great news for Horsforth as a whole.

"Following a week where we have heard that we have the best SAT results in the history of the school, we are now delighted to be in the enviable position of planning new buildings - this is a great day for the whole community of Horsforth, not just the school.

"I am very grateful to the many people who have helped and supported us in our strenuous endeavours to gain this funding. "

Mr Jex thanked the efforts of Education Leeds and representatives of Horsforth Town Council but paid particular tribute to Mr Truswell. "He has made every possible effort to assist us and I know that he is delighted with the high level of funding which we have been awarded."

Councillor Chris Townsley (Lib Dem, Horsforth), who is also a governor at the school, said that the possibility of additional places did not necessarily mean that they would go to Horsforth pupils.

"We are a crowded and cramped school and these plans are very welcome - we are very excited. But unless Education Leeds's admission policy changes, it could just mean that more people will come from outside the town."

A parents' campaign earlier this year highlighted anger from people living in the Newlay and Newlaithes areas of the town who were classed as outside the admissions area for Horsforth School. A boundary circle drawn up by Education Leeds showed them to be outside the area for automatic admission, despite Horsforth being their local school.

Coun Townsley added: "We had a governor's meeting on Tuesday. My opinion is that priority must go to Horsforth youngsters and then to youngsters from outside the area who already have siblings at the school.

"At the moment it is the other way around and we think it should be a community school for the community of Horsforth."

All the children from the 'excluded' area of Horsforth eventually got places, although Coun Townsley said the school still had a waiting list of 40.

Education Leeds has promised to review its admissions policy.