HUNDREDS of local teenagers are to benefit from a pioneering new education scheme.

High schools and colleges across Huddersfield are to form the Kirklees Collegiates.

And it will mean pupils will transfer to a different school one afternoon a week to study a specialist subject of their choice.

The aim is to harness the expertise available at all the area's high schools and colleges - many of whom now have specialist status.

It could mean a pupil at Royds Hall High School spending a Wednesday afternoon at Newsome, which is a specialist sports college.

And the move is seen as a way of improving school and student performances and tempting students into further and higher education.

The scheme, a partnership between Kirklees high schools, sixth-form colleges, Further Education colleges and work-based learning providers, will be launched tomorrow lunchtime.

The scheme will provide high quality opportunities for 14-19 year olds.

A spokesman for Kirklees Council's education service said: "The collegiate partners will provide a varied range of choices for young people which are both challenging and exciting.

"Young people will benefit from the specialist facilities, skills and expertise which the collegiate partners have developed."

Former Fartown High School headteacher Warwick Firmin is to manage the scheme in the Huddersfield area.

He said: "It opens up the schools that have specialist status, be it in sports, languages or sciences, so that all the schools in the Collegiate can benefit.

"It also gives more choice to students, and will motivate them to achieve better results.

"We envisage hundreds of students switching schools on Wednesday afternoons to study a subject of their choice that is not available at the school they attend."

To launch the Kirklees Collegiates, there will be a conference at the Pennine Manor Hotel, Scapegoat Hill.

Headteachers, Principals of colleges, council representatives, local MPs, and representatives from a range of partners have been invited to the event to officially launch the project.