Surrey County Council intends to create a voluntary-aided school on the site, and is looking for a contractor for the work involved in setting it up. The new school will be managed by the governing body.

Nord Anglia is suggesting that Kings’ Manor be renamed the Guildford Millennium school. Teachers are being promised: “new training, support and resources, new career opportunities, more flexible salaries and the satisfaction of belonging to one of the most interesting educational developments in the country.”

The CFBT bid promises that the company will concentrate on key skills: literacy, numeracy and IT training. The submission says that the company is not offering “bags of extra cash”; it does not believe that the problems of Kings’ Manor are primarily caused by a shortage of money.

The Kingshurst bid is managed by Stanley Goodchild. It proposes the creation of a school that focuses on the arts and technology. The Guildford school would be able to draw on the expertise of staff at the CTC. The Kingshurst company, like CFBT, is a not-for-profit organisation.

The three groups have put in similar proposals for greater use of technology and increased business links. Surrey is due to announce its choice on Monday.

When Stanley Goodchild was head of Garth Hill comprehensive in Bracknell, Berkshire, in the 1980s, he said the school was “in business - the business of educating children, preparing them ... for the competitive world of work”.

He pioneered the use of business links and leading-edge technology, drumming up pound;4 million in sponsorship along the way.

The school hired a senior manager from Hewlett Packard to offer services to local firms outside school hours, inspired by the heads who said it couldn’t be done.

In 1988 he became Berkshire’s chief education officer, cementing industry links and again spreading the use of technology.