The schools, identified by inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education as being among the best in the country, have volunteered to share the secrets of their success.

BBC Education Correspondent Mike Baker on the function of beacon schools

Each will receive up to £50,000 to fund their role in the £1.8m pilot scheme, which is due to start in September.

Beacon schools will receive visitors from other schools which want to find out how to improve results, while teachers from beacon schools will visit others to pass on their skills.

Details of the successful educational strategies employed by the beacon schools will be published on the Internet by the Department for Education and Employment and those schools with their own Websites.

Stephen Byers: "These schools represent a cross-section of the best in education practice"

The School Standards Minister, Stephen Byers, said: "We want beacon schools to share the secrets of their success with other schools so that all can benefit.

"Beacon schools will be expected to work in partnership with other schools and other interested parties to pass on their particular area of expertise, such as numeracy, literacy, music and a whole host of other subjects.

"Whatever their particular strength, they will be encouraged to focus on that, share it and help raise standards."

Torquay Boys' Grammar School, whose strengths include the teaching of science and information technology, is one of the 75 schools to be awarded beacon status.

Its headteacher, Roy Pike, told BBC News online: "We hope to be able to share some of our successful strategies and, as well as learning about the successful developments other schools are using."

Ministers deny that the policy is creating a new "elite" of schools, but teachers' unions warn that more social selection could result as beacon schools became over-subscribed.

Schools will be granted beacon status for an initial three years.