Sent in by St Mary's RC First School

Ofsted inspectors, led by HMI Derek Neil, were very impressed by one of Hexham's first schools. They said about St Mary's First School: "This is a good school". They concluded it had made considerable progress since its last inspection and had many strengths.

Good, with many outstanding features, is the overall judgement the inspectors left behind. They quoted a typical parental comment: "The school has made huge improvements to creative teaching, communications and the building. I am very happy with the education and care my children receive."

It was all right on the bite when a school staged its performances of a play about Dracula.

It also worked out well for Ciaran McGuire, a student at the school who made most of the costumes for the performances at the Alnwick Playhouse in Northumberland.

Matthew Armitt, 17, of Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham, won the Students Choice Award at the Young Designer and Engineer Awards at the Discovery Museum

For 18-year-old Ciaran's creation for one of the main vampire characters - Rowan Morris - won him an award at the Young Engineer, Designer and Technologist competition at Discovery Museum in Newcastle.

Floral themes decorated a school as members of the public were invited in for expert tuition.

Hexham's Queen Elizabeth High School held a demonstration day called Here Comes Summer, where 30 members of the public signed up with the school's community and leisure programme.

Horticulture staff member Emma Thompson talks to keen gardeners

They enjoyed a morning of glorious weather in the QEHS walled garden while horticulture staff member Emma Thompson showed off the hard work that her students and community volunteers put into maintaining the garden.

A gardening boom in school grounds has seen pupils in Northumberland digging for victory in a region-wide competition.

Yesterday, gold medals were awarded to 19 schools in the North East for their growing enterprises in the first Growing Together competition organised by Northumbria in Bloom to reward excellence in school horticulture. A total of 45 schools took part.

Hexham East First School was among the Gold award winners.

Youngsters have been helping to create spectacular artwork to spruce up their school.

Two North East artists worked for nine months with more than 50 pupils from Hexham Priory School in Northumberland to add a touch of colour to a new school building.

Hexham Priory pupil David Cowans with artist Carl

Hexham-based artist 'Carl' and Newcastle-based glass artist Gavin Marshall said the "phoenix" theme of the work symbolises the school's rebirth.

Acomb First School in Hexham is due to be closed for repairs this Monday (7th June).

Check the Northumberland County Council website for updates.

Children at a small rural school got some professional training ahead of a big cross-country challenge.

The 54 pupils at Acomb First School are once again taking on the Great School Run as part of their packed sports schedule.

And they were lucky enough to be nominated for a pre-run visit from the Great School Run activation tour.

A major green drive to tackle the traffic congestion and air pollution caused by the daily school run in Northumberland has resulted in every school in the county getting on board.

Thousands more youngsters are now improving their health and fitness by walking or cycling to and from lessons each day, instead of being driven to the school gates in their parents' cars.

All 201 local education authority schools in Northumberland now have their own individual green travel plans - which means the county council has achieved its Government-set target of having them in place by March this year.

Energy-saving ideas thought up by youngsters at a Northumberland school have helped them win a county-wide environment competition.

Students at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham set up a special working group to implement eco-friendly schemes around the school.

These included organising an eco-awareness day, using produce from the orchard and vegetable garden in the sixth form cafe, replacing polystyrene cups with mugs that pupils brought in from home and organising a paper saving day.

Schools across Northumberland are facing job cuts due to a funding shortfall described as one of the worst of recent years.

A number of high schools in the county are considering redundancies while others will not be replacing staff who leave.

Headteachers, governors and teaching unions have spoken out about the job losses, which have been blamed on a mixture of local and national factors.