A NEW swimming pool at a Poole school has proved to be a real splash with swimmers.

The pool is part of the newly rebuilt Montacute School at Canford Heath which has had £5million spent on it as part of the government's Priority Schools Building Programme.

The changing rooms, showers and toilets, an eight metre by 12m swimming pool and hot pool has facilities fully accessible to people with additional needs, with changing beds, hoists and tracks to all areas.

"The Montacute School rebuild provided a great opportunity for the council to deliver on other priorities, including investing in this fantastic new swimming pool," said Cllr Mike White, cabinet portfolio holder for children, young people and capital projects, Borough of Poole.

He added: "The facilities are a real asset to the school and the wider local community."

"Monty's Pool" is the name given to it by pupils from the school, which replaces its former name Lodge Hill. The old swimming pool had reached the end of its operational life.

Lodge Hill Pool was originally built from funds raised by parents and friends of both Lodge Hill Training Centre and Montacute School and has latterly been refurbished and managed by Borough of Poole.

It will now be demolished as part of the school rebuild and the council provided funding towards the cost of its replacement.

Jill Owen, headteacher at Montacute School which is for children with severe, profound or multiple learning difficulties, said: "We are looking forward to our new role managing this pool for the benefit of our pupils and the many local swimming groups that use it."

Donna Graham of SOS Swim School, who has been teaching children to swim at Lodge Hill pool for 28 years said: "Our classes at Lodge Hill have always been popular so we were really pleased to be able to move our existing lessons into the new pool.

"First impressions of the new facilities are really good and I've had great feedback from parents and children. The changing rooms are clean and bright and the water is really warm."