EDUCATION bosses in the region are looking to bid for hundreds of millions of pounds to bring North-East secondary schools into the 21st Century.

A deadline of December 19 has been set for local education authorities throughout the country to bid for their share of a £2.2bn pot of cash set aside by the Government for the Building Schools for the Future initiative.

If successful, more than £1bn of that money could be invested in education in the North-East.

Both Durham County Council and North Yorkshire County Council have confirmed that they will be looking to tap into in excess of £500m each.

Smaller authorities, such as Sunderland City Council, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Stockton Borough Council, Darlington Borough Council and Middlesbrough Council, will be expressing an interest in lower bids.

Each authority has, or is still going through, lengthy consultation with its headteachers and teaching staff to come up with ideas that will change the way education is delivered in the future.

Some schools will be demolished, new schools will be built and some refurbished.

Headteachers and education bosses in south-west Durham met this week to finalise ideas to put forward for a bid.

The ideas will be forwarded to Durham County Council, which wants to put in bids for three groups of schools.

If successful, Durham's bid alone could total £600m and North Yorkshire County Council is hoping that its bid for £530m will be approved, based on the fact that it covers a large rural area.

Earlier this year, the Government announced plans to refurbish or renew every secondary school in the country through the Building Schools for the Future Initiative over the next 15 years.

Local education authorities put forward schemes for groups of schools to be financed by a combination of grants and private funding.

Guidelines mean that the groups of schools should be close to each other geographical within each authority.

Headteacher Harry O'Neill has been seconded to Sunderland City Council to prepare its ideas.

He said: "This is an exciting Government proposal. Our bid is for £170m for all 18 secondary schools in Sunderland. Not just for buildings, but a vision for delivering a quality education, individually tailored to each young person in the city.''