North East Schools Awards ceremony held yesterday

Jul 3 2009 by Nicola Juncar, The Journal

The magazine’s deputy editor and Year 12 student, Alice Rutherford, 17, said: “We’ve had a newspaper at the school in some form for years, but it used to just be a few pages and not many people read it.

“It’s now grown to be a full-scale magazine with lots of photographs, features and reviews. We are really proud of it. We were pleased to be nominated for the awards, but to win came as a nice surprise.

“We hope to use the bursary to help with our printing costs.”

The overall title of School of the Year was won by Edmondsley Primary School, in County Durham.

And that wasn’t the only thing the school, in Edmondsley village, north of Sacriston, had to celebrate. It also scooped the Healthy School Award and was named as a finalist in the Sustainable School category.

Amberley Primary School, in Killingworth, North Tyneside, was named the winner of the Sustainable School award, sponsored by Eaga, and the second runner-up was Westfield School Junior House, in Gosforth, Newcastle.

Year 6 pupil from Amberley Primary, Joe Dann, 11, said: “We were very excited to be invited to the ceremony. We didn’t expect to win, so it was great when we did.”

Classmate Liam Cassells, also 11, said: “Our school works really hard on the sustainable project; everyone is involved. Even the children in the reception class learn about the importance of recycling.”

For the first time, this year’s ceremony also included a special award – Outstanding Contribution to the Community – which went to Diane and Darren Hunter who run the Solo Martial Arts Academy, in Gosforth, Newcastle.

Page 3 - North East Schools Awards winners and runners-up >>