Millions to be spent on college

Millions of pounds are to be spent upgrading a Leicester college which was once named the worst performing school in the country.

It has emerged New College - which opened as a "super school" in 1999 - is in line for between £10m and £15m for new buildings.

When it first opened, truancy rates soared and attainment levels were low.

But the new executive principal David Kershaw has brought it out of special measures and grades are improving.

'Lives ruined'

New College opened nine years ago after six secondary schools in Leicester were shut.

It was considered by some to be too big - and some parents at Wycliffe in Braunstone threatened to keep their children at home rather than send them to the new school.

There were also reports of a serious disputes between some pupils from the estates of New Parks and Braunstone.

The school was classed as failing in 2003, when it went into special measures by Ofsted. It came out of special measures in 2006, and students achieved the college's best-ever GCSE results that year.

Liberal Democrat city councillor Hussein Suleman, who is in charge of schools in Leicester, said it should never have been created.

"A super school was a pipe dream as far as I am concerned and now colleagues who were in the council at the time tell me that there was so much opposition at the time for this creation it should never have happened.

"But we are where we are, it happened and so many lives have been ruined, which is a terrible tragedy as far as I'm concerned."

The cash is coming from the Building Schools for the Future fund - a £235m project for schools in the county.

A three-month consultation period will be held to find out what facilities students and local people would like to see at the college. The council will submit proposals to the government in May and work could start on site in April next year.

The new facilities are scheduled to be completed by October 2009.