TEACHERS have turned a construction site into a maths equation while they wait for a school to be built.

The focus of attention has been a 3-ton dumper truck shifting soil to make way for a new £7.7m Rye Hills School, Redcar, next to the present complex.

Tutor Charlotte Moodie's maths group has measured up the vehicle's dimensions to discover how many loads it has taken to remove spoil from the 9,200sqm site, to a depth of 400mm.

She said: "The site provides an excellent use for practical mathematics, which brings work to life that would otherwise be theoretical.

Deputy headteacher Mike Erskine, said: "We'd like to see more lessons adapted in this way, using the site in as positive a way as possible."

All the spoil is being kept on the site to be used for landscaping when the existing school is demolished.