A SCHOOL where all the teaching takes place in temporary accommodation is celebrating its first step on the road to getting new premises following Devon County Council's approval of £50,000 to purchase a new site.

Halwill School has been campaigning for better accommodation for 20 years, but has always missed out on the funding.

The county council agreed this week to allocate £50,000 for Halwill in its capital building programme for schools with the intention of purchasing a site at Halwill Junction and it is currently in negotiations with landowners.

Headteacher Nigel Hakes said it was a move in the right direction: 'Basically, this school has been in temporary accommodation since the 1950s and it's been pretty dire for the children and the staff— they deserve better,' he said.

'We have been ranked as one of the worst schools in Devon and for the past four years since I have been headteacher I have been trying to do something about it.'

Plans have been drawn up to improve the school with an estimated project cost of £750,000, but the county council favours a new site which is less isolated from the community, with a new build cost totalling £1.9-million.

Mr Hakes said he hoped the new school would include a nursery and be available for community use.

'I really hope this means a new school is on the cards because the last thing we want is to end up like Holsworthy which had to wait years for new premises when the site was just sitting there.'

Devon County Council's chairman of schools John Hart said the authority aimed to build one new school a year and Halwill was a very high priority.

'We believe it makes much better sense to build a school at Halwill Junction than revamp the existing one at Halwill which is much more isolated from the main population,' he said. 'There are several schools in the county chasing the new build funding but I can assure the people of Halwill that the school is a very high priority.'

West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett said he had been pressing the need for a new school for Halwill for more than two years and he was delighted this money had been approved.

'I shall be continuing to put the pressure on together with county councillor Des Shadrick for funds to be made available in next year's budget for the rebuild,' he said.