MORE than three quarters of a million pounds could be spent on improving Bury's schools.

And £164,000 of the £751,000 would be pumped specifically into the borough's worst performing schools to help them gain better examination results.

But it will not be known just how much of the potential grant will be taken up by Bury's education bosses until the end of the month.

This is because the allocation is match funded and the borough would have to supply 47 per cent of the total themselves.

Bury's lifelong learning chairman, Councillor Trevor Holt, said: "We welcome the announcement of a potential £751,000 to support school improvement initiatives in Bury which would help us promote developments which benefit young people." It will be up to the schools themselves how they would spend the money, but they will be encouraged to look at such things as providing bonuses to help attract and retain good teachers; providing extra books and other resources to support improved standards; and improving the number of adults working with difficult pupils, including learning mentors to help prevent truancy and disaffection.

In Bury, 66 per cent of the grant would fund activities in all schools, with a further 22 per cent used to support the priorities in the LEAs development plan.

The remaining funding would be used to support any schools which are placed in special measures by Ofsted.

It is all part of the Government's ambitious aim for all schools to have 25 per cent of pupils getting five good GCSEs by 2006, with a minimum expectation of no school achieving less than 15 per cent by next year.

School standards minister Estelle Morris said: "Our approach is one of pressure and support. Whilst schools have targets and support from Ofsted to help them achieve them, we also recognise that some schools face significant problems that do require extra resources."