School is first in county to become science college, Teesdale Mercury

School is first in county to become science college

Feb 12, 2003

SPONSORSHIP from local people has played an essential part in the successful bid by Teesdale School to become the county’s first Science College, which was announced on Monday.

Assistant head teacher, Adrienne Richmond, said the school’s new status would broaden the curriculum for students, the science and maths departments would both be upgraded, and it is hoped the school will now be able to attract more Sixth Formers.

Teesdale School had to raise £50,000 in sponsorship for its bid, and much of this has come from the local community making financial pledges, said Miss Richmond.

GlaxoSmithKline was one of the main sponsors, but lots of smaller businesses and local organisations have also put money in, or made promises of equipment, including the Teesdale Mercury, which has pledged £200.

Miss Richmond, who was one of the team involved in putting the bid together, said the science and maths departments would jointly benefit. Although one of the school’s science labs was upgraded the summer before last, not much work has been done on the others since the school opened.

As a past Head of Maths, she was particularly thrilled that the maths department will also be modernised to make it a more pleasant place for students to work. Maths will now have integrated ICT facilities; students currently have to move classroom if they want to use computers. It is also hoped to have wire-free laptops for students’ use.

The funding that comes with the new status will actually materialise in September, but the school can now begin to plan its curriculum changes, she said.

One change will be that an accelerated group of maths students will be able to take their GCSE early and this will start with the new intake of Year 7s in September.

Additionally the school will be offering three GCSE sciences to some students, in place of the current combined dual science award. This would make the jump to A-Level easier for students, who would have a firmer grounding in all three sciences, she said.

But, said Miss Richmond, the benefits of the new status would be felt throughout the school. “We are hoping that more pupils will want to come to Teesdale School and it has always been an aim to increase the Sixth Form,” she said. “We have no particular target numbers in mind, but there will be a knock-on effect throughout the whole school and we hope that parents and students will see it as a really exciting and vibrant place to be.”

Other Teesdale schools will also benefit as the school has pledged to work with Staindrop Comprehensive, and the primary schools at Green Lane, Startforth, Bowes and Middleton-in-Teesdale.