A HIGH-ACHIEVING Poole school will be able to press ahead with a multi-million-pound transformation after crucial government support was finally confirmed.

Ashdown Technology College, which had applied for a £13m rebuilding grant, is one of 33 sample projects chosen by education secretary Michael Gove.

It will be the only school in the area to benefit from such financial support after the government’s withdrawal from the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme.

Laura Dagnall, chairman of governors at Ashdown, said: “This is brilliant news for the school. We now have a great opportunity to improve the buildings and the quality of education we deliver to our community.”

Three new academies will find out in the autumn if they are also to receive government funding for their planned upgrades.

Poole’s St Aldhelm’s Academy, formerly Rossmore Community College, and the Bishop of Winchester Academy and Bourne Academy, formerly Kings High, in Bournemouth will discover their fate after the comprehensive spending review.

Ashdown was one of several Poole schools submitted as part of a joint bid with Bournemouth for funding under the doomed BSF programme.

Montacute and Winchelsea special schools were among those denied funding by the collapse of the programme.

Plans to improve Oakmead, Winton and Glenmoor schools in Bournemouth also fell victims to the cuts.

Ashdown, which achieved its best ever GCSE results last year, plans to rebuild around a third of its buildings and upgrade the remaining facilities.

Cllr Mike White, Poole council’s major project chief, said: “Now we can look forward to building work starting next year and to the new buildings opening for the autumn term in 2013.

“This award of funding is vital for the plans to change the age of transfer to 11 from 2013.”