Growing budget pressures will not derail Merton’s sixth form revolution, the council has promised.

Councillor Debbie Shears, Merton Council’s cabinet member for children’s services, has pledged not to drop a long term plan to replace the initial temporary classrooms opening in September with permanent buildings.

She said: “We are all aware that the purse is getting smaller - but we are commited to sixth forms and will find funding for them.”

Coun Shears said the project, which involves opening sixth forms in September at all the schools in the borough that don’t currently have them, would see some pupils moving across the borough to take advantage of specialisms at different schools.

She said: “Students can switch between sites. In this day and age, you can’t have a sixth form that offers every subject.

Some of the new sixth forms will be run in co-operation with Merton College - and another, RR6, is a joint venture between Wimbledon girls’ school Ricards Lodge and Merton Park boys’ school Rutlish that will involve mixed sex lessons at both schools.

The other schools opening sixth forms are Bishopsford in Morden and Raynes Park High School.

Coun Shears said she would not reveal how many pupils had applied for the new centres, most of which can accept up to 50 students when they open in September.

But one teacher said applications for RR6, which will have a capacity of 100 in its first year, had already hit 250.

Headteachers and pupils got a first glimpse of some of the new classrooms at Bishopsford school on Monday. The new sixth forms are set to offer academic and vocational courses including A-Levels, diplomas and apprenticeships.

Ricards Lodge headteacher, Alison Jerrard, said there was an “overwhelming” interest in the project among current pupils and at sixth form open evenings. She added: “There’s a really exciting buzz around it.”

She was also confident lessons would be organised well enough not to cause problems for students travelling between the two sites, and said timetabling had been given the highest priority.

One of Ms Jerrard's pupils hoping for a place is 15 year old Lorna Whiting. She has applied for a place at the new RR6 centre, where she hopes to study for a BTEC in performing arts. She said being able to carry on her education in familiar surroundings was a big reason for wanting to stay.

She said: “I’ve been at Ricards Lodge for five years and I really like the environment - I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

Lorna said many of the school’s pupils were looking forward to joining the new sixth form - with most of her classmates applying for a place on one of its courses.

David Grant, deputy headteacher at Rutlish school, said the project would meet a “tremendous demand” for more sixth form education in Merton. He said the new RR6 centre had received about 250 applications from pupils at its two feeder schools and even some outside the borough.

He also said the new sixth form would create a new atmosphere across his school that was “more positive, more mature and more can-do”.

For more information about subjects on offer at each site visit merton.gov.uk/learning/schools/