The brightest 800,000 pupils in England are to be invited to apply to a new breed of university summer schools, which will provide residential and virtual master-classes for the gifted.

Up to 3,000 children, drawn from the top 10 per cent of children in each secondary school, will be eligible for classes at universities in each of the nine regions in England, including Cambridge, Bristol and Durham.

The £3.6 million scheme is part of a drive led by Lord Adonis, the Education Minister, to try to ensure that more bright children are identified early on and to combat concerns that mixed-ability teaching in the state sector fails to challenge the brightest pupils. Lord Adonis said that the Government needed to do more to meet the needs of very able children.

By creating a regional network at nine universities, to be known as “excellence hubs”, and offering subsidised nonresidential and online master-classes, as well as residential courses, the new scheme would ensure more support for children “no matter where they live or what their background is,” Lord Adonis said.

The scheme will extend the reach of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth, based at Warwick University, which already provides residential and nonresidential summer schools and courses to the brightest five per cent of children.

The academy was set up in 2002 after concerns that middle-class parents were abandoning the state sector for private schools, where brighter children received more support.

The first of the new courses will be available to 3,000 children from this summer. During the next academic year this will increase to more than 22,000 places available during term time, weekends and holidays. The excellence hubs are being funded by £3.6million from the Government, with each centre matching this from other sources.

Each hub will provide 10 per cent of places available, free of charge to those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds as well as other subsidised places. Centres will develop their own courses in response to local demand and expertise.

Children in the Eastern Region will be able to spend a week at Cambridge and East Anglia Universities, which are jointly running a 10-day nonresidential summer school in literature and creative writing.

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