TWO schools are to be flattened and rebuilt and a new school for children with behavioural difficulties opened after Hampshire scooped almost £10m of government cash.

Southampton education bosses have been handed £2.9m to replace the 286-pupil Newlands Primary School in Ullswater Road, Millbrook, Southampton.

Education chiefs have also handed £2m to knock down and rebuild the 206-pupil Redbridge Primary School in Redbridge Road, Millbrook.

Southampton's head of education support and planning Andrew Hind said it had been a case of second time lucky with the two primary school bids failing to win any money last year.

"We are delighted that the bids have been successful because it will enable us to address significant problems with unsatisfactory buildings at two Southampton schools," he said.

He added: "What we have to consider is how we will spend the money and how we will provide the schools with new buildings that are appropriate to their needs and address things that are unsatisfactory.

"There is a lot of hard work and quite a long way to go and while the current children at the schools might not benefit their younger brothers and sisters will."

Other possible locations for Redbridge Primary will be considered in the locality that could be an improvement on the existing site next to the busy A35 Redbridge Road.

Redbridge Primary School head teacher Jane Shiers said: "There has been a school here since the mid 1800s and it is really good news that we are going to get another primary school for the children of the future."

"This funding is a credit to everyone at the school."

Children at Redbridge Primary currently have most lessons in temporary classrooms around a Victorian building dating from about 1850.

At Newlands the building is a metallic design built in the 1950s with poor temperature control and inadequate use of space.

The dated classrooms once housed the former Newlands Infant and Newlands Junior Schools.

The new school will be built on land on its existing site next to Southampton Primary Care Trust and a Sure Start building which provides childcare and job training for parents.

Schools minister David Miliband said: "We want to educate pupils in top quality schools with new classrooms, new dining halls, new science labs and new gyms."

Hampshire County Council has been awarded £3.5m to build a new school for secondary school-aged pupils who suffer emotional and behavioural problems at Leigh Park in Havant, near Portsmouth.

The building projects are expected to be completed by 2008.