A DARLINGTON school is enjoying a double celebration.

Longfield School reached its target of raising £50,000 to fund its bid for sports college status - with just one day to spare.

And on the same day last week a team of Longfield students were announced as the winners of a national competition to design a £10,000 project to be built at their school.

Deputy head teacher Sue Byrne said it had been a nail-biting few weeks trying to raise the final £25,000.

She said: "It is a great relief and we are all thrilled to have made it just in time.

"Members of staff, especially Dave Hunton, have worked really hard.

"We received lots of small donations from local people. Just this morning we had a letter and a pledge of £20 from a 70-year-old lady who lives nearby."

A new sports lab and a studio for dance and drama are among the school's plans, should the Government authorise specialist status and award a £100,000 capital grant.

Meanwhile, a team of six students from years ten and 11 were at an awards ceremony at the Royal York Hotel, where they learned they had beaten nine other finalists to win the first Shepherd Schools' Challenge, sponsored by Shepherd Construction.

The team, Daniel Alsop, Ian Bell, Christopher Hakin, Lewis Moses, Jennifer Mulholland and John Stephens was led by Longfield's head of year ten, Gail Smith.

The students spent six months researching, planning, designing and costing the project project to renovate a school yard area with the help of a Shepherd project manager, and made a formal bid to a panel of judges from the company at the beginning of February.

Their prize is to have the project built, which will take place over a three-week period during March.

The scheme includes a memorial to the school's late headmaster, Dr William Ions, who died two years ago.