AN academy plan for Halifax, partly sponsored by the University of Huddersfield, has received a funding boost.

More than £31m has been secured for the proposed academy in north Halifax, which is sponsored by the Diocese of Wakefield, Calderdale Council, Calderdale College and Huddersfield University.

They confirmed that the Department for Children, Schools and Families would pay for a complete rebuild in time for students to move in by 2012.

The new academy, which will be built next to Holy Trinity Senior School, Holmfield, Halifax, will open two years earlier in the existing school buildings.