TWO Darlington schools are to join forces in a ground-breaking £2m education project.

Under the Department for Education's proposals, Hurworth Comprehensive and Eastbourne Comprehensive will form the country's first schools' federation.

The aim is to bring Eastbourne Comprehensive out of the "special measures" imposed on it by the local authority last year, following a critical Ofsted report.

Emergency action was taken to bring a complete change of leadership to the school. In January, the school was ranked 182nd out of 200 of the worst schools in the country, based on GCSE results.

The funding will provide the refurbishment of Eastbourne, an additional building at Hurworth and extra teaching staff.

The schools will share expertise, facilities and equipment to enhance the professional development of teaching staff at both schools and to create learning opportunities for pupils.

If agreed by the schools' governors, both would retain separate head teachers and governing bodies, but Hurworth's head teacher, Eamonn Farrar, would manage the project as the federation's chief executive.

Mr Farrar said: "The Government is promoting a different way of developing schools and is looking at schools collaborating and helping each other instead of competing.

"Most people think joining together means amalgamation but it's not.

"Hurworth Comprehensive has been recognised by the Department for Education as outstanding and Eastbourne Comprehensive, in special measures, needs a fair amount of support."

He added: "There are lots of practical ideas that are possibilities, for example Hurworth becomes a specialist maths and computing college in September and one of our aims is to help other schools in the area.

"We could build a maths resource centre and invite pupils from Eastbourne to the facilities and work with a new teacher.

"Eastbourne Comprehensive has turned a corner and has progressed since its first inspection in November. The federation will accelerate this progress.

"The federation is going to be quite a culture shock to schools as we are used to competing and aiming for the top of the league table."