AN award-winning drop-in service that aims to tackle the health concerns of school pupils is continuing to set new standards.

The Ferry-Health initiative, housed in a redundant classroom at Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College, celebrates its first anniversary this week.

The confidential in-school service, which provides advice, support and information on physical, emotional or sexual health issues, has been extremely well used.

The service recruits health professionals from varied backgrounds to be available in the centre every lunchtime.

Pupils can pick up health education leaflets, chat to an adult for advice, watch a health-related video, search for health topics on the Internet, or just use the centre as a quiet place to sit.

Youngsters can also speak to fellow students, including 16-year-olds David Gash and Leanne Clark, who act as peer mentors.

Leanne said: "We provide advice more than help. We are not telling them what to do, we are telling them which way they can go.

"It is really nice when you see someone come in who is upset and they go out with a smile on their face."

The service, which has the backing of Sedgefield Primary Care Trust, won a national Sheena Amos Youth Trust Award for excellence in sexual health services.

Believed to be the first of its kind in the country, the formula has been used by other schools in the region to set up their own services.

An initiative introduced by Ferry-Health is for theme weeks, the latest of which will be a healthy eating session. It is also hoped to introduce a text messaging service.

Ferry-Health co-ordinator Karen Cromarty said: "It is really exciting to see such a significant change in the culture. We ran a questionnaire in which students overwhelmingly said that since attending this they feel much more comfortable about accessing mainstream services, which was one of our aims."