BERWICK High School is to receive almost £600,000 during the next two years to help it build on the improvements it has made in recent years.
A letter from Whitehall confirmed this week that the government has designated Berwick as a high performing specialist school.
It will now receive £90,000 each year to develop as a centre for Applied Learning and operate as a 'system leader' in educ
ation.
The school has also been told that it is to receive close to £400,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to finance an ambitious new curriculum with facilities for learning in music, media, science and engineering.
Head teacher Stephen Quinlan believes that being a high performing specialist school will provide a focus for its ambitious plans for the next four years.
He said: "I'm pleased that the efforts made by our pupils and staff have been recognised by the government.
"High performing status is both a great honour and a tough challenge. We will be expected to achieve very challenging targets, innovate in the curriculum and to provide leadership to schools in more challenging circumstances.
"The combined value of the new funding will be almost £600,000 over the next two years. This money will be used to finance a new curriculum for our pupils; one that will help them to enjoy learning and be motivated to achieve the highest standards.
"The future looks exciting for Berwick High School and it's an appropriate time to record our grateful thanks to our original sponsors who led the drive for specialist status four years ago," he added.
Resources to improve its facilities could not have come at a better time. This year the school is launching a new curriculum designed to offer more choice and challenge to all pupils.
Three languages will be available and the new AQA Baccalaureate will be taken by the most able pupils.
The new funding will provide much needed investment in the creative, media and technology areas of the curriculum.
When pupils arrive for the new school year in September they will have access to a new recording studio, state of the art media suite and a specialist technical science laboratory. New engineering facilities will also be developed in partnership with Northumberland College.
Berwick's new high performing status comes at the end of its first phase as a specialist business and enterprise college.
The performance of the school during this period has led to this official recognition. In the summer of 2008 the GCSE average points score achieved by Berwick pupils was in the top 1 per cent nationally and 84 per cent of pupils achieved 5 A*-C grades, 53 per cent including English and mathematics.
The school came top of the Northumberland league table for the progress made by pupils and was acknowledged by the government to be one of the 50 most improved schools in the country.
There were other successes to complement examination performance, most notably when it reached the final of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust national award for outstanding work with employers.
It was also shortlisted, with one of its key partners, Northumberland College, for the Association of Colleges National Beacon award. This was in recognition of the work done to create the specialist, and highly successful, hairdressing and beauty salons in the town centre.
They have recently completed a major investment programme in sport and physical recreation. A floodlit, all-weather pitch and changing pavilion has opened and a fitness suite has been installed in the sports hall.
