It's all change for the secondary schools in Romsey. After four successful years as Language Colleges they are going their separate ways. The DfES has changed the rules significantly and joint status is no longer allowed.

The Mountbatten School will remain as a specialist language college and is adding another status in sport. Romsey is bidding for Maths and Computing status.

"It was a most successful and worthwhile joint venture," said head teacher of Mountbatten Lesley Morffew. "Both secondary schools, our partners and feeder primaries derived great benefit."

Gareth Bell, deputy head of The Romsey School, agreed. "Over 20 staff and many pupils studied Italian in lessons after schools. Teachers worked together on schemes of work and development of study methods."

Neither school had to raise sponsorship this time. In 2000 they submitted the bid and approached businesses together.

Their success triggered substantial capital grants and extra payments which were shared in proportion to the numbers on roll.

Both schools have been awarded temporary status for a year and funding has begun. They have to complete bids by November 5th. These will be scrutinised and, if they are approved, the status will be back- dated to September 2004 and remain until 2008.

Mountbatten will receive £183 per pupil per year for language and sport status. Romsey will receive £123 per pupil each year.

Mr Bell explained the reasons for choosing Maths and Computing. "We are part of the Eastleigh Consortium of schools and colleges. None of the others specialise in this area of the curriculum. A major benefit of the specialist scheme is that we share good practice and offer support, training and expertise to each other. We will be the leading edge school for these subjects."

A training day for all maths and IT teachers has already been arranged for March.

Romsey has always had an excellent record in GCSE maths. This year's results were particularly strong, much higher than the national average. They want to teach maths in a cross- curricular way through ICT, using software programmes and inter-active whiteboards.

Mountbatten's PE Faculty has pioneered ways of teaching children of all abilities to enjoy sport and keep fit. Commonwealth Games and Olympic medal winners Melanie Purkiss and Chris Draper are past pupils and teams have won numerous county championships.

"We are confident of success," said Mrs Morffew. "I was told by the DfES that we would be one of 71 'elite schools' in the country with dual status."