The first two schools to benefit from the project will be Archbishop Beck in Walton and St John Bosco Arts College for Girls, Croxteth.

Archbishop Beck will move from its current site, notorious for traffic access problems, to a new £25m building on land occupied by a council depot in Long Lane, Aintree, in 2013.

Reflecting its sports specialism and Catholic ethos, visitors are set to be greeted by a striking cross and a rock climbing wall.

Features will include two sports halls and traditional gymnasium which can be combined to create a theatre seating 1,000 people, as well as a sports venue which will be Olympic-standard for basketball.

It will be utilised for national and European events and the base for up-and-coming city sports talent.

During the same year, in a £20m scheme, St John Bosco will be partially rebuilt with its entrance moving to a “more community facing” Storrington Avenue and its design will include a welcoming piazza.

The performing arts specialist will also have an arts gallery in its foyer, drama studio and 800-seater theatre set to be a permanent base for a community theatre company.

Confirming the radical overhaul, Mick Daley from the council’s BSF team said: “One of the design specifications was that the schools have to be magnets and attractive to those using them.

“We are deliberately doing things differently than the way schools have been done for donkeys’ years.”