A grant of �11m was announced for Bristol schools in April

The city is one of four in the UK to be chosen by the Department for Education and Skills to receive the funds.

They will be piloting a new form of the Private Finance Iniative (PFI) under the Pathfinder umbrella.

Under the programme, education authorities form joint venture companies with private sector firms to work on the building, refurbishment, management and maintenance of schools over an agreed period.

Modernising

A spokesperson for the city council told BBC News Online: "What we do with the money depends on how much we receive and we should know that in the next couple of weeks."

"Our bid set out the aims, key priorities and some of the work already being carried out: for example, plans to relocate Fairfield School and a current PFI scheme for the refurbishment and rebuilding of four schools," he added.

Other projects chosen to share in the cash are in Greenwich and Southwark, Bradford and Sheffield.

On 1 April, the government announced Bristol schools would share in more than �11m to pay for replacing and modernising temporary classroom buildings and providing new facilities.