EDUCATION chiefs have revealed dramatic £90 million plans for secondary schools in Bournemouth and Poole.

These include amalgamating schools and converting three secondary schools into academies.

One of these could be one school incorporating Kings High, Oakmead College, Heathlands and Elmrise Primary Schools.

As the plans stand, new academies, which are independent, state-funded schools, will replace Rossmore Community College and the Bishop of Winchester Comprehensive School and one will replace Oakmead Technology College and Kings High School.

Jane Portman, executive director of children and families services at Bournemouth council, said: "Academies are usually built in areas of high deprivation, where schools might have behavioural issues, problems with truancy and with a high level of school leavers not going on to employment, education or training.

"Research has shown that academies are improving outcomes for children more rapidly than other schools.

"A brand-new secondary school for north Bournemouth is a fantastic opportunity for the whole community."

Each academy will be sponsored by one or more organisations.

These could include businesses, the Church, independent schools or voluntary organisations. Sponsors provide £2 million, which will be put in an investment fund for the benefit of students.

Although the schools would continue to follow the national curriculum, their sponsors could increase what they are able to offer students.

School rebuilding and refurbishment is paid for by government money under the Building Schools for the Future programme.

The proposals for transforming secondary education are tied in with plans to amalgamate Heathlands and Elmrise Primary Schools.

The education bosses are also considering the possibility of creating one large school incorporating these two primary schools with the Kings High and Oakmead College academy.

This institution would need a large site in north Bournemouth and one possibility is near the current Elmrise Primary School.

There are also plans to refurbish two special schools in Poole.

Work is expected to start in 2011, with one of the newly built schools and one of the refurbished schools ready by September 2013.

Residents of Bournemouth and Poole will have their say on the proposals when the consultation starts on June 6.

Barry Watts, programme director for Building Schools for the Future in Bournemouth and Poole, said: "We are at the early stages in the development of our proposals and people's views will be taken into account as we move towards making a decision on how we should proceed."

"ONCE-in-a-generation" plans to rebuild Brockenhurst College for the future are to be discussed by New Forest National Park authority planning development committee on Tuesday, writes Bob Jolliffe.

The multi-million-pound scheme, to be funded jointly by the Learning and Skills Council and the college, would mean the demolition of all existing buildings on the site except the Beacon Technology Centre, and their replacement with new two-storey buildings.

Overall, floorspace would be expected to increase by 50 per cent from 14,286 square metres to 21,754 square metres.

A new child care nursery of 544 square metres is proposed to replace the existing facility at Highwood Road half a mile from the college.

New sporting facilities are also proposed in the plans, including multi-use pitches and indoor sports hall, the only building that would be more than two storeys tall.

A boon for villagers and visitors would be 625 car parking spaces on the campus, alleviating problems around the village.

Improved access on to the A337 and bus bays in the college grounds would improve traffic flow on the A337.

Currently the college teaches 3,005 students a day from a catchment area bounded by Bournemouth, Salisbury and Southampton. That is expected to level out at 3,292 by 2013/14.

The college has been working with the parish council and Friends of Brockenhurst to develop an environmentally sensitive, energy-efficient campus that will provide "an even higher quality learning experience for both sixth-form and adult learners, with exemplary sustainable buildings sypmathetic to its New Forest setting".

Initial building work would begin behind the existing site in 2010.

Principal Di Roberts said: "The college now has what the government describes as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to develop the college for the future.

"The new buildings will retain the traditional values we hold dear.

"They will enable us to meet the challenge of environmental sustainability and provide the best teaching environment for the students of the next generation."

Planning committee members are being recommended to grant permission subject to conditions.