An American-style super school with its own extensive medical facilities is set to open next year.

Brighton and Hove City Council has been given £200,000 from the Government to provide the city with its first extended service school.

Among the features would be doctors, dentists, opticians and other health care professionals on the same site, meaning pupils would not have to travel to receive treatment.

The school could also provide additional learning and cultural opportunities, after-school clubs, study and support groups, as well as opening up the buildings to community groups out of school hours.

Part of the inspiration for the project comes from schools in New York, which are run along similar lines.

Organisers have also drawn ideas from village colleges set up in Cambridgeshire in the Twenties to combat village isolation.

It is not yet known which school in Brighton will be the first to be transformed.

As reported in The Argus, a conference was held at Bevendean Primary School on Friday to discuss the plan.

Councillor Pat Hawkes said: "Similar approaches used in the US and Scotland have been crucial to this development.

"The key elements include childcare, healthcare, social care, lifelong learning, study support and parental support, not as build-ons but as an integral part of the school."

Ty Goddard, the council's strategic manager for schools in the community, who has been leading the extended schools project, said he had been highly impressed when visiting New York to see how they operated.

He said: "What I saw were doctors' surgeries within the school, dentists' surgeries, the involvement of social workers on site and other health professionals.

"It was amazing because you had health and social care professionals working in tandem with education professionals.

"Our project takes some of its inspiration from the US but it is more about what the school feels would be useful for the pupils and their families. There is no one blueprint for this."

David Bell, the Government's chief Ofsted inspector, also addressed the education professionals at the conference.

He said: "In terms of inspection, we are going to be giving greater attention to the characteristics of the school and how it works with others."