27 March 2012 Last updated at 11:32 ET

Work on new Furness Academy begins

The new building will bring the academy's two sites together

Work on a new £22m academy in Cumbria which is due to open next year has begun.

Furness Academy in Barrow-in-Furness, which opened in 2009, is currently located on two campuses, North and South.

The new site is being built on a playing field on the South site which is off Park Drive, near Barrow Park.

The building, for 1,200 pupils, is due to open in September 2013.

Doug Blackledge, academy principal, said Barrow was seeing an "unprecedented" amount of investment in education.

The academy replaced Barrow's Thorncliffe, Parkview and Alfred Barrow secondary schools, when it was established two years ago.

It is sponsored by Furness College, the University of Cumbria and Barrow Sixth Form College.