Huge efforts began last weekend to raise the £100,000 needed for the application to be made to the government.

Money is still pouring in from a family dance night held at school on Saturday and a cabaret evening on Sunday.

Holy Family is seeking funding from local businesses, the community and major national firms which are keen to support language education in schools. It is hoped that one-third of the money needed will come from the school's Parents and Teachers Association, another third from local businesses and the community, and the other third from national sponsors.

If the bid is successful, the £100,000 raised will be matched by the government. Additional funding will be awarded for the next three years, depending on the number of pupils attending the school. The government has said it will give the school £100 per pupil, which Holy Family estimates will bring in about a quarter of a million pounds over the next three years. As part of the requirements, targets for achievement have to be set by staff which if fulfilled will bring in extra funding from the government in the third year.

Head-teacher Conor Davis says: "We hope to provide facilities for languages that will be used by the pupils and members of the public, as well as local businesses. We envisage facilities to be open to the public throughout the year and are determined to achieve this."

Mr Davis wants to take advantage of the government's initiative that allows schools to specialise by attracting extra funding into the school. He decided to bid for the language-college status because the school already has a strong languages department. Holy Fam-ily has six language teachers and the school offers French, German and Italian at both GCSE and A-level standards. French and German is equally taught to pupils when they first enter the school aged 11.

The school has also established other language links, such as exchange programmes with schools in France and Germany and its entrance into the Comenius project with schools in Finland, Luxembourg and Ireland at the end of last year (see report on page 9).

Eileen llewellyn, the school's head of languages, says: "This status would be a benefit both to the school and the community. It will improve exam results and open pupils' horizons by giving them an insight and an interest in communicating with people around the world."

Plans include a state-of-the-art computer room with the latest in language hardware and software. The room would cater for class lessons and individual tutoring. New books would also be bought.

The languages department hopes to set aside its own area, which will replace the four separate rooms languages are currently taught in. Extra teachers are to be brought in for the evening and weekend classes, and one extra full-time language teacher is to be employed by the school. Staff also hope to recruit foreign language assistants to come and work in the school.

Language staff aim to introduce new courses, such as GCSE and A-level Spanish, conversational Japanese and Urdu.

It is hoped the new equipment will encourage people to return to language studies, attract businesses to train their workforces in languages and set up satellite links with schools across Europe.

The school is a member of the Technology Colleges Trust, a government body which assists schools which want to move down the language-college line. There are 511 schools in the Trust, only 39 of which have language-college status.

Holy Family aims to produce plans for its language-college status by October for submission to the Department for Education and Employment. If the plans are approved, the school hopes to adopt its new status by September next year.

The status will be similar to the sports-college position at Keighley's Oakbank School and the technology-status bid by Greenhead Grammar School, Keighley, rejected for the fourth time at the end of last year.

Anyone wanting to make a donation to the school should contact Mr Davis on 210212.

Opinion, page 10

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.