A DEAL has been reached to rebuild a successful school after education officials agreed to underwrite the financing of the project.

The £25m project to rebuild Durham Johnston School on a single site will now go ahead after Durham County Council agreed to find the final £6m required.

The school had been told it would have to wait for up to ten years for its crumbling buildings to be replaced under the Government's Building Schools For The Future programme.

This was because priority was being given to areas of high deprivation and low academic attainment.

Parents and staff were furious that the popular split-site school, was being penalised for being too successful.

Its dilapidated buildings date back to the Twenties yet it has the highest A-level pass rate in County Durham.

The situation had become so desperate that £500,000 had been spent on repairs judged to be immediately dangerous to the 1,500 pupils.

They included water pouring through the leaky roof into electrical wiring.

However, governors were told last week that the long-awaited work to create a single-site school at the Crossgate Moor site would get under way in 2007, ready to accept its first pupils in September 2008.

The school needs £25m for the work, of which £13m can be raised by the sale of surplus land when it moves on to a single site, leaving a £12m shortfall.

Government rules mean that only £6m of special assistance can be made available under the Targeted Capital Fund - although £12m can be made available in exceptional circumstances.

Coun Neil Foster, the council's cabinet member for education, said that, following meetings with Schools Minister Stephen Twigg, the authority had been told that £6m would be available.

He said the council was now prepared to borrow the final £6m to allow the scheme to start - ahead of further talks with the Government to take place after next Thursday's elections.

Coun Foster said: "We were able to tell the governors the good news.

"I am delighted and so is the authority that we can finally go ahead with a brand new school."

Headteacher Caroline Roberts said: "We are absolutely thrilled.

"The school first became a comprehensive in 1979 and we have been waiting since then so this is wonderful news."