A Darlington school is starting its bid for specialist status with a launch this week.

Branksome School needs to raise £50,000 in sponsorship by October in order to apply to become a specialist business and enterprise college.

If successful, the school will be awarded £100,000 by the Government, to be spent on improving the school.

Headteacher Linda Hartley said: "It's one of the new specialisms and the reason we've chosen it is that it can apply to the whole curriculum, rather than one area. Resources can be spread across all areas, rather than just one specialist area, which is more attractive to parents."

The bid is being launched at the school on Friday. Darlington MP Alan Milburn is to kick-start the bid with a speech and former pupil John Lawrence, now a Look North television presenter, will also be lending his support.

Mrs Hartley said: "Friday is the big launch. We're putting up a big marquee and we've invited just about every business we can think of.

"One of the aims is to try and build a business and enterprise centre on that site. It will be not only for the school, but for the whole community as well."

Branksome, which has just been given a School Achievement Award from the Government for the second time, will be holding several sponsored events in an effort to raise the money.

Mrs Hartley added: "There will be all sorts of sponsored events in school and we're hoping that businesses will sign up because they'll have a very important part to play in the development of the college." If the bid is successful, Mrs Hartley hopes the extra cash will help raise standards and enable it to become a focus for the whole community.

She said: "The school's already had a big progress in results and these extra resources should improve that.

"We're going to become the hub of the local community and we're hoping that the school will be able to open almost on an extended day from 8am to 8pm, so it promoted the school as the centre of the community.