THIS is what the new £28 million Joseph Rowntree School in York will look like.

The new Joseph Rowntree School, in New Earswick, moves one step closer today with the appointment of a design and build team to lead the project.

Support services and a construction company, Carillion, has been appointed by City of York Council to design and build the multi-million pound scheme following a bidding process.

The winning designs were chosen after widespread consultation and an evaluation of submitted schemes.

The project should be finished by the end of 2009.

The council is planning to use a Government grant to replace the school, in Haxby Road, under the Government's 15-year, £45 billion Building Schools For The Future (BSF) programme.

Head teacher Hugh Porter said a panel of people including representatives from the school and local authority would be chosen from two final designs. He said the plan was to site the building behind the existing school so pupils would not have to relocate while the new build is going on and construction is due to start in spring/summer next year.

Mr Porter said: "This is a wonderful opportunity for the school and the local community.

"Building a new school suited to 21st century education will enable us to enhance the very good reputation that the school has had in York for many years."

Pete Dwyer, City of York Council's director of Learning, Culture and Children's Services, said: "This is a tremendously exciting project not only because it creates a high quality new school for the city, but because the new build will create a building equipped for modern educational practice.

"We are planning schools which can adapt to the future of education and this one will lead the way.

"It is a very ambitious and innovative project which will significantly improve standards of education for the current and future young people of Joseph Rowntree School."

The full BSF programme for York will see the city's secondary schools transformed to deliver improved building standards for education. The proposed school's state-of-the-art designs include a central high street with learning clusters, flexible space and personalised learning areas.

The design and building project itself will be used as an educational tool for current pupils and will include a site classroom.

Links to various areas of the school curriculum will be made throughout the project, giving pupils an insight into how the project develops.