Top athletes, performers and linguists could be groomed in York if six city schools pull in a £2 million cash boost for sport, music, drama and languages.

PULLING TOGETHER: Steve Perks,15, left, of Burnholme College, Philip Gurrey, 15, of Manor CE School, Erica Papaglimis, 17, of Fulford School, Claire Wilcox, 14, of Oaklands School, Mark Sandey, 14, of Millthorpe School, and Matthew Thompson, 14, of All Saints' RC School, demonstrate how the schools are pulling together in their bids for specialist school status

Three pairs of secondary schools are bidding to become specialist "colleges" but they need to raise £150,000 in sponsorship first - £50,000 for each bid.

Burnholme Community College and Fulford School are bidding together for sports college status. Fulford would concentrate on outdoor sports and Burnholme on indoor sports.

Fulford has already put in a separate lottery bid for a new sports hall and head teacher Keith Hayton said he hoped the college bid would bring much-needed new sports facilities.

Liz Watson, Burnholme head teacher, said the college already had a good partnership with the College of Ripon and York St John's sports science department and hoped to develop work on health and fitness.

Oaklands and Manor started on their joint bid for a performing arts college last year, and were backed by actress Lorraine Chase. Oaklands has a special interest in drama and dance, and Manor in music.

Oaklands head teacher Michelle Burns said: "It's quite exciting with the other schools also bidding for things. If everybody gets them it will be very interesting."

If the sports and performing arts bids to be made in June are successful, they may lead to further bids for lottery cash.

The first bid to be submitted in March will be from All Saints' and Millthorpe and would develop teaching in French, German, Spanish and Italian.

All Saints' head teacher Adrian Elliott said: "Languages are crucial to York as a tourism and marketing centre and this would enable us to enhance teaching through extra staff and equipment."

Each bid would bring £75,000-worth of building work to each school, plus £200,000 to be used over four years for teaching.

The City of York Council will be applying for £600,000 alongside each bid, which would be used for city-wide schemes to share the benefits, through its Schools Learning Together project.

The aim would be that any York pupil who was particularly able in a certain area could take advantage of the specialist facilities available.

Chris Edwards, deputy education director, said: "No one else in the country is doing anything like this - our bids are collaborative. This is about giving all children in York the very best facilities and teaching."

The bids are being made to the Technology Colleges Trust, which has already created specialist science and technology schools at Huntington School and Joseph Rowntree School. All the city's secondary schools except Queen Anne, which is to close in the summer, are now affiliated to the trust for science and technology teaching.

Anyone interested in finding out about sponsoring the bids can contact Chris Edwards or Martin Foster on York 613161.

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