AN EAST Durham school has launched a series of initiatives to build on its successful partnership with the community.

In less than three years, Shotton Hall School, in Peterlee, has seen a dramatic improvement in its academic and vocational achievements and helped bring a new lease of life to its local area.

The transformation of Shotton Hall began in 2001 when headteacher Ian Mowbray introduced measures including full school uniform, a rewards system, staff development initiatives and recruitment of additional staff.

Within a year, the school, which had languished at the bottom of the academic league tables, notched up a 13 per cent increase in students gaining five A* to C grade GCSEs.

Then Shotton Hall, conscious of the problems facing the area following the demise of the coal industry, launched its Community Action Partnership for Innovative Teaching and Learning (Capital) project.

The link between Shotton Hall School and the voluntary sector organisation East Durham Partnership blossomed into a large-scale scheme.

Now the partnership has set up three community businesses.

A children's warehouse provides inexpensive and safe materials for local primary school children, playgroups and creches, while a furniture recycling project has been established in a neighbouring factory unit, to provide affordable office furniture for schools and voluntary groups.

A Helping Hands scheme is also under way, aimed at providing gardening, painting and decorating and small-scale DIY help to elderly and disabled people in the community.

The school already has its own community training base, an advice and guidance centre for young people and a community library.

Its recent success in becoming a specialist arts c ollege is also providing funds to build a dance studio with future plans including an academy for training people for jobs in the computer industry.

Ellen Foxton, director of the school's newly-established Faculty of Entrepreneurial and Community Development, said: "Not only are we helping to provide jobs and services to local people, but we are also building a richer learning environment with enterprise at its centre for the pupils at the school.

"The main reason for what we are doing is to help to drive up the children's achievements in their education and to help them raise their sights to achieve more in the future.

"If we can do that and also benefit the local community at the same time, we feel we can deliver a win-win situation that will be of benefit to everyone concerned.''

To find out more about the Capital Project, training and education courses and the services of the community businesses, contact Margaret Shepherd on 0191-586 8493.