TWO high schools in Burnley are celebrating after being awarded specialist school status.

St Hilda's has become the first school in Lancashire to win the status in humanities and it was third time lucky for St Theodore's school in its bid for specialist sports status.

Both have had to raise £50,000 in sponsorship to back their efforts and will now receive £126 per pupil every year for the next four years from the Government to develop their speciality.

Both school will also receive £100,000 to fund a capital project. St Hilda's is to build a new state-of-the-art humanities resource centre and St Theodore's is using the cash to fund a new laboratory, where pupils can use computers to monitor their sports and fitness development.

St Theodore's headteacher, John Tat, said the award was great news for the school, which has also been given a £3.3million National Lottery grant to develop new community sports facilities, including a large sports hall, a six-lane, 400metre athletics track, two football pitches, a cricket square, tennis courts and a floodlit all-weather pitch.

Work on the new facilities will start in Spring providing the plans are approved by Lancashire County Council in March.

Mr Tat said: "It is a very exciting time for the school, everything is coming together.

"We have fought for this status three times now and have finally been successful.

"It is really persistence and determination and the support of parents, governors and staff at the school that has made it a success -you really cannot do things like this unless people are very supportive of the idea."

St Hilda's headteacher, Bernadette Bleasdale, said the school chose to bid for specialist humanities status in order to build on its high academic standards.

She said: "This new specialism suits the needs of St Hilda's perfectly because of its high level of academic success. The strengths are already there, particularly in English, but also in history and religious education, and we have the potential to be even better.

"The LEA local education authority is delighted and proud that we are the first in Lancashire. Months of very hard work have paid off."

St Hilda's and St Theodore's were among three schools in East Lancashire to be rewarded specialist status. They were joined by St Christopher's High School, in Accrington, which also becomes specialist technology school.