A SCHOOL’S trailblazing scheme to open up its facilities to the local community is being rolled-out across the North-East.

Hummersknott Academy, in Darlington, created the Hummersknott Active scheme in 2011 to enable local people, companies, and community groups to book school facilities during evenings, weekends, and school holidays.

Now the model – featuring the school sports hall, swimming pool, and performance hall – is being expanded across the other 17 North-East schools which make up the Advance Learning Partnership (ALP) education trust.

The Northern Echo: ALP Active staff delivering a half-term activity programme at Hummersknott Academy. From left: Hannah Mulroy, James Robertson-Taylor, Megan Tunstall, Rohan Forrest, Jordan SaundersALP Active staff delivering a half-term activity programme at Hummersknott Academy. From left: Hannah Mulroy, James Robertson-Taylor, Megan Tunstall, Rohan Forrest, Jordan Saunders (Image: Chris Barron)

Hummersknott Academy became part of ALP last year, leading to the community-rental scheme being replicated and rebranded as ‘ALP Active’.

ALP’s head of community partnerships., Stephen Cheeseman, who manages the service, said: “It’s very exciting for us to see a model we launched in Darlington more than ten years ago being replicated across our region.

“The new ALP Active service will replicate the success of Hummersknott Active in every school in the trust. Standardising procedures and upskilling staff, using our existing model, ensures the public will see the same consistency and professionalism when booking anything from a birthday party to a 3G football pitch at any school in the trust.

“It will also mean we can expand our popular holiday club childcare scheme – which has provided vital support for hundreds of Darlington families – to communities across County Durham.”

The Northern Echo: An ALP Active half-term talent show rehearsal - with staff members James Robertson-Taylor and Rohan ForrestAn ALP Active half-term talent show rehearsal - with staff members James Robertson-Taylor and Rohan Forrest (Image: Chris Barron)

It is expected that the service will attract tens of thousands of users, based on its previous performance at Hummersknott, which regularly attracted around 6,000 people a week to the school on evenings and weekends.

“Our motto is ‘Connecting Communities, Fuelling Ambitions’ – and that’s exactly what ALP Active is going to do, on a larger scale than we ever thought,” added Stephen. “The service has already been launched at nine schools, with the rest to come soon.

“And the best part is that revenue generated from facility rentals is gifted back to our schools, to reinvest in maintaining and improving facilities.”