Staff and pupils at a Bradford school are swapping the classroom for the catwalk tonight to celebrate their bid to become a flagship specialist school.

Buttershaw High School has submitted a bid worth £50,000 to the Government to achieve Business and Enterprise specialist school status.

And to launch the bid, the school is joining forces with its main sponsor, Arcadia, to hold a huge fashion show in the school's theatre this evening.

Students and staff will be modelling clothes from more than nine different high street stores in the Arcadia group, including Burtons, Top Man and Miss Selfridge, at the show.

Retail giant Arcadia has been working with the school since September, giving advice to pupils on their projects and enterprises and now it is providing £25,000 in sponsorship to add to the £25,000 already raised by the school.

Dave Morgan, deputy headteacher of the school, said: "We have had a long history of involvement in young enterprise at Buttershaw High School and so specialist status was an obvious thing for us to go for.

"However we had experienced difficulty in raising sponsorship until we found Arcadia who agreed to help sponsor our bid. To get the status would be a boost for the school as many of our pupils excel in this area."

Staff and students are now keeping their fingers crossed for June when they will discover the outcome of their bid. If successful, the school will have the status from September.

The school has ambitious plans to offer lessons in business and enterprise reflecting the changing business world.

Lessons in Mandarin will be offered to pupils and there are also plans to develop international business links with schools as far away as China and the United States. Ideas under consideration include live link-ups between the schools via satellite to discuss business projects.

Representatives from Arcadia would also provide expert advice on retail, finance and other business-related projects.

Mr Morgan added: "Because of the time difference between the countries it would be feasible to have a live link-up to Chinese schools first thing in the morning and then to schools in America late in the afternoon.

"Longer term we would look towards developing media training, as well working with Arcadia to allow our students to run retail outlets of their own."

A spokesman for the Arcadia Group said: "Arcadia wants to be involved in the education of young people and develop their entrepreneurial and business talents, not only because it is a chance to promote the retail industry as a rewarding career, but because it allows us to build a long-term relationship with the local community."