A HOST of Southampton schools have taken the first step towards transforming the face of secondary school education in the city.

Outline planning applications have been submitted to Southampton City Council for four secondary schools as part of the initial wave of a £200m redevelopment project.

Chamberlayne College for the Arts, Sholing Technology College, Upper Shirley High and St George Catholic College will have either all or part of their buildings overhauled.

A fifth school, Bitterne Park, will receive a major refurbishment as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme, but outline permission is not needed at this stage.

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Claire Hall from the Building Schools for the Future team said submitting the applications was an important step on the road to transforming the schools, which it is hoped, will boost the city’s jobs market as well as education standards.

Local businesses are being encouraged to bid for contracts associated with the project.

“These plans show that we can rebuild the schools on their existing sites while the schools continue to run.

“We have assured residents that these are not the final plans, we will be getting architects to design them and that’s when we will start a detailed consultation.”

Chamberlayne College for the Arts will be totally rebuilt on its existing site – a process head teacher Chris Kelly describes as the most exciting in her career.

“It’s a real opportunity for the school itself and for the regeneration of Weston, to design the school from scratch for local community,” she said.

“We’re planning a school fit for the 21st century, building different relationships with people and different ways of working. There won’t be classrooms for example, there will be learning spaces.

“It’s very much about trying to fit the transformation agenda and to make sure we are fit for the next 50 years and maybe not repeating some of the things we have done in the last 50 years.”

The planning applications are likely to be reviewed by councillors in February and March.

St George’s College will have 75 per cent of its facility rebuilt, with the rest refurbished.

“The good thing is that you can start again,” said head teacher Graham Wilson.

“The trend is to have open plan classrooms and we are hoping that we will be able to have glass walls that can be moved to create different sized classrooms.”