WORK has finally begun on the £16 million new Yate International Academy.

The scheme was put on hold last year after the Coalition Government reviewed all school building projects.

But the go-ahead was later given to transform the King Edmund Community School in Sundridge Park and it is now scheduled to open in the summer next year.

Local dignitaries and education chiefs gathered at the site yesterday for a turf-cutting ceremony to officially mark the start of the new works.

The new premises will improve the academy's specialisms in science, health and sport and support development of the international curriculum.

The school is one half of the Ridings Federation of Academies, the other being Winterbourne International Academy, previously The Ridings High School.

Both schools opened with their new names in September 2009, with the federation created so the top-performing Ridings could provide leadership to the less successful Yate comprehensive.