Work is to begin on an £11.5m Londonderry school development, it has been announced.

Financial closure has been reached on the HLM and RPP joint architectural design for St. Mary's College.

The school forms part of the city's £38m schools improvement programme and is being delivered by the Belfast Educational Services (Derry), which comprises O'Hare & McGovern and Interserve Plc.

St Mary's College is an all-girls school with 850 pupils aged 11-18. It will relocate to a new site with new purpose built facilities designed around a central courtyard to meet the College’s objective to 'open up the building' and ensure that all parts of the school are light and airy.

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Classrooms and teaching spaces will wrap around large serviced areas in the centre and additional flexibility will be created by locating the gym and multi-purpose hall back-to-back.

Education Minister Caitriona Ruane said: "This project opens an exciting new chapter in the education of children in Derry city and the school can look forward to new purpose built accommodation with state of the art equipment opening in 2010."

St Mary's College is the second school project that HLM has worked on in Northern Ireland. In partnership with RPP Architects Ltd, it has also designed Holy Cross College, a £29m state of the art secondary school in Strabane, which opened earlier this year.

(PR/JM)