Festive cheer for Prudhoe school's pupils

Posted by The Journal on Dec 31, 08 11:54 AM in Schools

As children wound down for the Christmas break, one set of youngsters had a special reason to feel the seasonal cheer.

As well as the usual annual activities, including Harvest Festival, learning Christmas carols and staging a Nativity play, the children at St Matthew's Primary, in Prudhoe, have been settling in at their revamped school.

As far as Autumn terms go, it has made this one particularly exciting. At the start of the term in September, St Matthew's became a primary having previously been a first school.

It became the first primary school in Prudhoe as part of the county council's plans to change from a three-tier system of first, middle and high schools to a two-tier set up of primaries and secondaries.

It now joins Shanklea, Northburn and Hareside primaries in Cramlington, which also used to be first schools.

The children and staff formally celebrated its launch as a primary school last week.

As well as now taking on children up to the age of 11, a great deal of refurbishment work was needed to complete the transformation. The work, which began on site at the start of the year, included a school hall extension, a new classroom, library, kitchen and a facility for a special educational needs co-ordinator.

The construction work, which was completed by the end of the summer holidays, involved foundations and threading a new steel frame into the existing school hall for structural support.

Headteacher Bernadette Pye said: "The scheme provided a major boost to the school's facilities and to our pupils' learning environment."

The school worked in partnership with Newcastle-based construction consultants RNJ for the project.

John Gibson, partner at RNJ, said: "We were pleased to be a part of this exciting new development."

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