Brilliant news for Hexham Schools after years of Tory delay

I am delighted to hear that plans for the rebuilding of Hexham School are finally to go ahead. Any investment into the county’s children and their future is to be welcomed and I’m sure families in the town are pleased with this announcement. It’s also good to see this finally progress after the disappointment two years ago when the government turned down the then Labour-led Northumberland County Council’s application to merge Haydon Bridge High School and Hexham Queen Elizabeth Academy and establish a new multi-million pound academy in the area. The proposals at the time were to consult on removing Academy orders from Haydon Bridge High School and and the sponsorship arrangements of the Bright Tribe Trust to come up with a long term solution for education in that part of our county. In our view that proposal was rejected, simply because the government was determined to make all schools academies. While some have undoubtedly been successful, there have been some shocking examples of what can happen under organisations such as Bright Tribe, in the west of Cumbria for example. When it boils down to it, we all want the best education possible for our children. The announcement about Hexham is brilliant, even if it has been a bit of a bumpy ride to get there.