Plans to build a Fame-style academy for the performing arts in Birmingham were confirmed yesterday.

The new school - called the West Midlands Eastside Arts Academy - will cater for nearly 1,000 pupils aged 14 to 19 who show an aptitude for acting, dancing, music and other art forms.

It is to be built in the Eastside learning quarter around Digbeth at an estimated cost of about £30 million and is expected to open in 2011.

Modelled on the BRIT School in Croydon, South London, the Eastside Arts Academy will also specialise in musical and dramatic theatre, visual arts and design, technical theatre production and digital media.

It will aim to become a centre of excellence in the creative and media arts and develop links with other regional secondary schools specialising in performing and creative arts.

The new academy is to be sponsored by the Ormiston Trust, which helps disadvantaged children.

Announcing the plans in Birmingham's Mailbox complex yesterday, Schools Minister Andrew Adonis said: "This is a path-breaking development for the national academies programme. The Eastside Arts Academy is the first Academy entirely for pupils with aptitude in the performing arts.

"It will draw pupils beyond the age of 14 from across the West Midlands, on the model of the highly successful BRIT School in Croydon, which has a national reputation."

Birmingham City Council also unveiled sponsorship proposals for two more of the seven schools earmarked to be turned into privately-backed academies.

Sheldon Heath Community School is to be sponsored by the King Edward VI Foundation and The College High in Erdington will be backed by education charity Edutrust, which is already earmarked to sponsor Heartlands High and Shenley Court.

Under the programme, Education charity Ark will sponsor Harborne Hill and St Albans CofE in Highgate and a consortium led by the Black Country Richardson family is to sponsor Kings Norton High.

Leader of Birmingham City Council Mike Whitby said: "This is an exciting day for the future of education in the City of Birmingham.

"We have a vision to transform education across the city, so that all our young people can benefit from excellent schools and the best opportunities in life, both academically and socially."

Councillor Les Lawrence (Con Northfield), Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families, said: "We have a young, vibrant and diverse city and our schools and academies need to reflect that.

"I am confident that working together with sponsors, partners, teachers, parents, young people and the Government, we can create and sustain academies we are proud of."

Lord Adonis added: "Birmingham now has one of, if not the largest, academy programme in the country, showing the determination of the city to drive educational transformation by means of academies."