FERRYHILL Comprehensive School has won a national award in recognition of its work in the community.

The school was recently visited by two assessors appointed by the Schools Curriculum Award team, an independently sponsored body which has validated the award for 20 years.

Ferryhill headteacher Steve Gater, who is delighted at the accolade, said he wanted the school to become "the heart of the community".

"In our submission we had to detail all the activities we as a school organise with various sections of our community," he said.

"This included such things as our family literacy project with parents and grandparents, our personal safety programme with the local community police, and our arts programme, which forms part of the town's annual arts festival."

Mr Gater said: "Although the school faces many of the same pressures confronting other schools, we found it invaluable to list the many ways in which our pupils' learning is directly or indirectly enhanced in the outside world.

"When the assessors came, we had many visitors to share examples of the ways in which they support our school, helping to make it an even more successful and stimulating learning environment.

"We are grateful to so many people, our parents, governors and staff, who gave their time to the benefit of us all. We are particularly indebted to Scholarest, who so kindly sponsored our submission fee."

The school has been invited to send two children and two adults to the award ceremony.

The event, which will take place on Tuesday, June 11, will be hosted at the Tate Modern art gallery in London.

The awards to the winning schools will be made by the Duke of Gloucester.

Ferryhill Comprehensive School is hoping to extend its links with the community still further through its bid for specialist school status.

The school is hoping to become a business and enterprise college.

If its bid is successful, the school will receive £500,000 of Government funding over the next four years.

The aim is to develop the use of the school's successful UK Online Centre and increase the number of adult courses held at the school and in the community.