‘WE will achieve it.’ That’s the message from sponsors of the controversial Portland Academy as the government encourages them to continue their planning work.

The proposed £50million academy plans had taken a knock last month when Education Secretary Michael Gove published a list of schools that would have money axed under the Building Schools for the Future scheme.

Under the plans, Royal Manor Arts College on the Island had been promised a building revamp as part of the Portland Academy rebuild.

Supporters of the academy had been given a ‘cast-iron’ guarantee by the Labour Secretary for Families, Schools and Children, Ed Balls, back in April, that should Labour get back into power, the academy would be given £28million.

But the plans for the all-through education system for four to 19-year-olds took an upward turn last week when co-sponsor Professor Stephen Heppell travelled to London to discuss the future of the project.

Professor Heppell said: “I have been to Downing Street myself and there’s a sense of enthusiasm for what we are doing.

“They have said they want us to keep going and head for opening the academy for the original date of September 2011 and that’s what we’re going to do.

“But of course money is tight, so some of what we are doing over the summer is to see what we can do cheaper and what the stages of the transformation will be.”

The project has received a boost from the coalition government, which gave Professor Heppell and Dorset County Council money to employ a legal team, who will handle the buying of land for the new school.

The legal team has experience working with the Crown Estate to acquire land and Professor Heppell said that the team were still ‘very interested in the Independent Quarry site’ as it was ‘still the best option’ for the Portland Academy school hub.

Over the summer, the team will be in talks with the academy’s partners about the curriculum that will be implemented in the school, and how ideas that teachers and children have brought back from fact-finding trips at other schools can be worked into it.

Other discussions will be about school uniform and what the name of the academy will be, but Professor Heppell said that it would be important to get children, parents and teachers as involved as possible in the process.

He said: “The process of turning into an academy won’t just happen in 2011, it has to be a gentle process of change.”

Plans for the academy had not been greeted with enthusiasm from all parts of the community.

Many parents and teachers voiced concerns at the public consultation.

Sian Thomas-Cutts, a member of the PTA at St George’s Primary School said the development was ‘very interesting’. She has sent a letter to Education Secretary Michael Gove expressing her concern about the academy.

She said: “We would welcome improvement to Royal Manor Arts College and we would support a secondary academy, but want to keep primary schools out of it.”

She added: “We don’t want to be part of a social experiment. We would be looking for more information about the academy.

“If there’s money there, give it to Royal Manor. They have the greatest deficit and need for new buildings.”

But Georgina Bacon, whose two children are at Grove Infant School, welcomed the plans.

She said: “I’m encouraged by the news and am very pleased by the positive noises from the government and hopefully it can continue through feasibility.”