A Rawdon school is hoping to lay the foundations of future success with the opening of a major new teaching building to replace old mobile classrooms.

Dignitaries, including Leeds Lord Mayor Graham Kirkland and Keith Burton, Leeds director of education, gathered yesterday to mark the opening of a £460,000 extension at Benton Park High School, Harrogate Road, Rawdon,

The school, which last year topped both the Leeds A level and GCSE exam league tables, is hoping the building will enable it to move into the new Millennium with the facilities and space to maintain its high level of success.

The new building, which is yet to be named, has been funded by Leeds local education authority to replace worn-out mobile classrooms which have been home to generations of pupils.

Deputy head teacher Harvey Lambley said: "It's wonderful news. The new building will create space and help relieve the pressure on the rest of the school. We're a very popular school and the building will help accommodate the large numbers of children we are expecting.

"Some of our old temporary class rooms date back 25 to 30 years, so to replace those is a real bonus.

"It will provide us with the facilities and the environment which we believe the children will find very motivating to work and be taught in and so will the staff. The funding for the new building is a measure of the great support we have had from the education authority."

The nine-classroom building was built by York-based contractors Yorkon and will house the school's modern language, geography and religious education departments as well as facilities for teachers.

The new language classrooms will include computer-assisted learning facilities and the school is now hoping to invest in new computer hardware to make the building state of the art.

Representatives from the business-backed Technology in the Community organisation were also present at the ceremony after providing the school with financial backing.

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