THE Abbey School, Faversham, is bidding to win a lucrative business and enterprise status.

It is one of seven Kent schools that are hoping to launch a bid that, if successful, could net a further £592,000 (for a school with 1,000 pupils) from the Government.

But each has to raise £50,000 before its bid can be considered.

Head teacher at the Abbey School, Peter Walker, appealed for local businesses to support the bid. He said: "It's for the benefit of the community at large."

The scheme would, he said, improve the lot of children when they left the school and it lead to improvements within the school with a cash injection.

The event was launched Canterbury Business School, University of Kent, which has been helping the schools.

Phillip Dean, Kent County Council's secondary adviser, said the programme raised the standards and esteem of young people.

Evidence indicates that specialist schools do better than other schools, with last year's GCSE performance around nine per cent higher.