WHILE everyone was still enjoying the last heady days of the summer holidays, one teenager was already in school.

The visually-impaired youngster was beginning the process of familiarising herself with every nook and cranny of the alien building, tentatively feeling her way along the walls.

For her, long corridors disappeared into a blurred horizon, doors melted into the wall. The floor, a few metres ahead, was a thick sea of fog.

But after several visits, a map of the school began to form in her mind - a mental reference detailing where corners led and what was behind every door.

By the time her fellow classmates joined Adele Waterfall-Brown a few days later, she knew the entire make-up of the school. While they adjusted to their daunting, new surroundings, Adele could confidently find her way around.

A few years later, Adele is anxiously awaiting the results of the nine GCSE exams she sat at Hummersknott School, in Darlington, this summer.

She recalls her first day there clearly: "It was pretty nerve-wracking but I already knew my way around the school and I felt really confident because most of my other friends didn't know their way around. I didn't want to carry a white cane because I wanted to be treated like everyone else."

Adele was born with optical nerve damage which has left her able to see only one metre ahead out of one eye and three metres out of the other.

Initially, she attended George Dent Nursery in Darlington and then Abbey Infants School with a classroom assistant to help her. But, with a lack of resources for visually-impaired students, Adele struggled to cope, and in 1991 her family was encouraged to register her as blind.

They then had the prospect of sending her to Belmont Special School in Durham, a 45-mile round trip away from the family home in Darlington. Her dad, David, recalls her first day at her new school and the traumatic moment when he put her in a taxi and waved her off.

"I'll never forget that day, it was heart- breaking," he says. "It was suggested that we go up to Belmont with her on the first day but I thought we had to get this over with and learn to live with it."

The situation lasted for a year, but the family felt Adele was losing social skills and missing out on friendships because she lived so far away from the school.

In 1992, they moved to Northampton where the education authority had a policy of integration into mainstream schools. "We were desperately worried at the time, but with good support and good teaching she managed very well," says David.

But when the family moved back to Darlington a year later, Adele faced the prospect of returning to Belmont. Feeling that she had already proved she could cope in a mainstream school with support, the family decided to push for her to go to a local school.

With backing from the Royal National Institute for the Blind, David says Durham Education Authority eventually agreed to give the eight-year-old a trial run at Abbey Road Junior School with the help of support worker, Fiona Clarke.

The trial run ended when she finished at the school in 1996, but then it looked as if the family would face a further battle with Adele having to go to another special school. At this point, David Henderson, head of Hummersknott School, the school's governors and Labour councillor Norma Town, who is blind, backed the family's bid for her to join her local school. And so, Adele, who has an older sister, Lindsey, and younger brother, James, became the first pupil with extensive sight promblems to attend a mainstream secondary school in Darlington.

From the beginning, Adele was determined not to carry a white cane, which meant getting to know her way around the building.

"I think the staff were frightened to death she might get lost and that she would be in danger around the school, but this confident girl appeared," recalls her father David, 47, who was inspired to turn his back on his financial services business after his experience with Adele. He undertook a two-year diploma course to train as a rehabilitation worker for the visually impaired and now works for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Throughout her years at Hummersknott, Adele's support worker has been with her, copying down work in class onto a white board so Adele can read it better. If a programme was being shown on television, she would be allowed to sit near the front of the class and take the video home with her later. She also carried a magnifier and had the use of specialist computer equipment.

Looking back, she says she is lucky she had the chance to go to Hummersknott. "I think it's great because it gives people the choice to mix with kids who haven't got disabilities and it builds your confidence," she says.

She has also left a lasting legacy at the school - the annual Adele Waterfall-Brown trophy which goes to an inspirational child with a disability.

Mr Henderson says the school now has a unit for the visually impaired and accepted its first totally blind student, Adam Ferguson, two years ago. "Before Adele, we had pupils with physical disabilities but not those who were visually impaired," he says. "She has blossomed during her time here and has blazed a trail in a sense. It's a remarkable achievment. When she was at Belmont, people used to come calling for her sister and party invitations would come for her sister because the kids didn't know Adele. But as soon as she started at Hummersknott that all changed. People got to know her and she made friends here."

Adele now plans to study for a certificate in Health and Social Care, along with an A level in English Language at Darlington College of Technology. She has yet to decide whether to opt for social work or nursery teaching. "I'm hoping to work with children, I've wanted to work with them ever since I was little," she says.

Whatever she decides, Adele will continue to be an inspiration.