WORK has started on a new £10m city academy for North-East schoolchildren.

The Unity City Academy will be the new school for youngsters at Keldholme and Langbaurgh Schools, at east Middlesbrough, and is being built on a site between the two current schools.

The academy will bring work-based learning to more than 1,200 youngsters, as well as provide opportunities for lifelong learning to many more people in the wider community.

Technology will play an important role at the academy with all pupils and teachers having access to computers and the Internet, and links to businesses across Teesside.

It is hoped students will be equipped with the skills for the workplace of the future, and that the academy will help both children and adults to prepare for the digital age.

Over coming months, a series of roadshows will be taken to areas around the school to inform the local community of what will be on offer and what the academy means.

Excavation and investigation works have begun on the site and the academy is due to open in September 2003.

When it opens, the two schools will be demolished.

Headteacher Ron Newitt said: "The Unity City Academy is the next generation of education for young people in east Middlesbrough, a new kind of learning centre with an emphasis on modern technology in all its forms."