The town's council has been told it can invite private businesses to enter into partnership to construct and manage new schools.

It will mean north Swindon will get seven new schools, including a new community secondary school and a new building for Hreod Parkway Secondary School.

Three new community primary schools and two new special schools will be constructed.

World class

The scheme will be supported by the government under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

New facilities could be available by September 2005, the council said.

Councillor Kevin Small, the council's leader, said: "The Ofsted inspection report and recommendations strongly advocated that the council should pursue the PFI route it had set itself for northern Swindon schools.

"We want a world class service in education and this scheme will be one of the major stepping stones."

Andrew Fleet, the headteacher of Hreod Parkway, said: "We can now confidently and seriously plan new state-of-the-art schools for Swindon."