A SCHOOL has announced innovative steps to ensure it continues improving.

The Wensleydale School, in Leyburn, is to launch a vertical tutorial system, meaning pupils of all ages will be placed in the same form group.

New catering arrangements will be introduced, providing children with fresh, locally-sourced food before and after school, as well as during lunch and break.

A school library will also be re-established at the school, as well as a new dance and drama studio.

A new post-16 bistro has already opened.

The Wensleydale School is already one of the most improved secondaries in the country and the most successful non-selective in the county based on 2012 GCSE results.

However, headteacher Graham Parker said that for the school to achieve even greater success, it had to take innovative steps.

He added: “As well as having great exam results, we want to ensure our pupils have the right skills, enough confidence and are prepared for the world of work and university.

“We want our pupils to be ambitious for themselves. We’re telling them not to let life put them were it things they should be – do something about.”

The school has decided to opt out of the county council’s catering contract, and will instead provide its own meals with menus agreed with pupils.

Food will be available from 8am in the morning and after school until 5pm, when pupils will be able to do homework while teachers supervise.

Funding of around £300,000 has been secured to pay for a new library, which will use the site of the former library – now a drama studio.

The drama studio will move to two classrooms in the school basement area, which will also be refurbished.

Morning tutorial time will be increased to half-an-hour with between two and four pupils from each year making up each form group.

Mr Parker said there were lots of benefits to the vertical tutorial system, including allowing older pupils to help and give advice to the younger children.

In another change, each tutorial group will be given £200 to start a business. Form groups will also be asked to produce a film and organise a family food night.

“We want the local community to have a school that they’re really proud of - a school where they can come into at any time and see it is a very orderly place with exiting things going on,” said Mr Parker.