£500,000 training centre opens (From The Northern Echo)

£500,000 training centre opens

3:59pm Wednesday 24th February 2010

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A NEW £500,000 vocational training centre has opened at a north Durham school.

Students, parents, teachers, staff and governors at Durham Community Business College (DCBC) attended the official opening on the school site, in Ushaw Moor, near Durham, on Wednesday.

The centre was created out of a redundant gym. It provides facilities for training of bricklaying, plastering, painting, decorating and plumbing.

There is also an ICT suite with 30 computers suitable for digital animation and Internet access.

The centre will cater for youngsters from five secondary schools during the day and offer adult courses on evenings.

The facility was paid for by DCBC, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DSCF) and regional development agency One North East. The refurbishment was carried out by the Esh Group.

DCBC chief executive Anne Lakey said: “Esh Group has done a tremendous job, working to a bespoke design brief to create a multi-use resource that enhances the training available to all young people in the area and for adults from the community.”

Centre manager Ted Hogkiss said: “Having such a magnificent centre right in the middle of Ushaw Moor is fantastic.

“Learners are very keen to study here. They recognise what a great place it is and how good the facilities are.”

Esh Group director Michael Hogan, who attended Wednesday’s ceremony with colleague Jack Lumsden, said: “Jack and I are delighted to have been invited here today to mark this important occasion.

“We’re both very proud to see the result of our company’s work and we thank the college for having the vision to have set out to create this superb facility.

“We are local and we are passionate about supporting people in the area and their communities.

“We urge everyone to come and make the very best use of the centre. Our wish is that you buckle down, work hard and become the very best you can be.”

DCBC, formerly Deerness Comprehensive School, is now part of the Durham Federation, with Fyndoune Community College, in Sacriston.

It recently received almost £1.5m from the Big Lottery Fund for a new four-court sports hall. Last year, its students won the annual Future Business Magnates contest.

For more information on the college, call 0191-373-0336.

via £500,000 training centre opens (From The Northern Echo).

School opens new sports hall From Durham Times

School opens new sports hall11:50am Sunday 20th December 2009

A SCHOOL has opened a four-court sports hall with nearly £1.5m from Big Lottery Fund’s New Opportunities for PE and Sport programme.The hall is at Durham Community Business College for Technology and Enterprise – formerly Deerness Comprehensive School at Ushaw Moor.College principal Ann Lakey said: “These facilities have added an extra dimension to the chances we can give our students, not only in their education, but also in their lives outside of school.

READ MORE HERE \|/

via School opens new sports hall From Durham Times.

Backing over Eash Winning school site rethink plans From The Northern Echo

COUNCILLORS have backed the scrapping of plans to re-site a village school so that the development of a play area can go ahead.

Durham County Council was to have rebuilt Esh Winning Primary School, which is at The Wynds, on land off Woodlands Road in the centre of the village.

The Woodlands Road site is considered by residents to be a village green – an application to give it official green status is to be made – and there were objections to the plan.

But the council’s cabinet yesterday confirmed that the school will now be rebuilt on its current site, freeing the other land for the play area.

David Williams, corporate director for children and young people, said the change was being made because the residents’ association had won a £50,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund towards a new play area for two to 17- year-olds on the Woodlands Road site.

John Wilkinson, Liberal Democrat councillor for Deerness Valley, welcomed the move, saying the village would get a 21st Century school and a new play area that would help reduce antisocial behaviour. “The young people of the village now have somewhere to go and something to do,” he said.

Joe Armstrong, Labour councillor for Esh, said he believed the school should be in the centre of the village but “you have got to be pragmatic, £50,000 from the Big Lottery – you can’t let that go by.”

He added that he was pleased the village was getting the investment and that he hoped it would lead to better educational attainment.

Claire Vasey, cabinet member for children and young people’s services, said the council was right to reconsider the site of the school in the light of the play area plans.

“By rebuilding the school on the existing site we will be able to maximise the use of land and ensure that the village gets 21st Century educational facilities,’’ she said.

Council leader Simon Henig said the scheme would provide facilities that the children of Esh Winning deserve.

He thanked local councillors, school governors and Durham City Labour MP Roberta Blackman-Woods for their contributions to talks about the issue.

Federation triumphs in schools business battle (From Durham Times)

PUPILS from the Durham Federation school have clinching victory in an annual business contest.

The youngsters’ idea to turn driftwood and other items recovered from beaches into works of art – dubbed Earth in a Box – earned them first place in Future Business Magnates 2008-09.

The Durham Federation team rose from third place before last Thursday’s sixth and final contest challenge to pip Framwellgate School Durham.

Its success was announced at an awards ceremony at Ramside Hall Hotel, near Durham.

Dave Turnbull, chairman of the judges, said: “Having been involved for four years, I can say the innovation is improving and standards are improving year on year. It gets closer and closer and it’s very competitive.

“The passion that the kids have is brilliant. It’s good for the economy, bearing in mind we’re in a financial slump. What these youngsters are proposing – given the right marketing, some of these ideas could really take off.”

Framwellgate School, whose pupils created holders for mobile phones known as Soxy Phones, were leading the competition going into the final challenge, which saw contestants give 20-minute presentations to captains of industry.

Mr Turnbull, community safety manager for Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, said: “It’s been very difficult to pick a winner. They’ve all come up with very different marketable products and they’ve learned a lot.

“The Durham Federation project was great because every single gift was different.

It has a unique selling point. And all the gear for the project – given it’s collected through the right process – is free.”

Future Business Magnates, now in its fourth year, sees young people tackle six challenges related to setting up a business.

School teams are partnered with a business mentor.

This year’s contest has featured schools from Durham, Chester-le-Street, Easington and Northern Ireland.

Durham Federation is a partnership between Durham Community Business College in Ushaw Moor and Fyndoune Community College in Sacriston.

Its business mentor was Bramwells Jewellers, in the Prince Bishops shopping centre, Durham.

Belmont School finished third with a project titled Tidy Tops – mesh lids for open-top green recycling boxes to keep tins and cans from being blown away.

via Federation triumphs in schools business battle (From Durham Times).

Lottery cash for community groups

Durham Community Business College in Ushaw Moor, near Durham City, has received over £7,500 to provide six local primary schools with sports coaching, equipment and activities.

School sports co-ordinator Paul Donaghy was pleased that the funding provided what he described as a “wonderful opportunity for children” in the Durham area.

MP’s praise for Sam and Aaron

Courtesy of The Northern Echo

TWO teenagers have been picked out for praise by their MP, following school work on business and sustainability.

Sam Cummings and Aaron Young, both year ten pupils at Durham Community Business College, in Ushaw Moor, were congratulated by Roberta Blackman-Woods, the MP for Durham City.

Dr Blackman-Woods congratulated all winners at the school’s Celebration of Achievement event, but highlighted Sam and Aaron for particular praise.

She said: “Sam and Aaron’s enthusiasm for business and sustainability was wonderful.

“Their work looked at business into the future and addressed issues of corporate responsibility.

“Speaking to Sam and Aaron they told me they would like to run their own business one day.

“The fact that these students are budding entrepreneurs and their enthusiasm for business and sustainability has clearly been stimulated by Durham Community Business College (DCBC) and the teaching at the school.

“The work was first class and they deserved their award.

“I also congratulate everyone in year ten at DCBC who won a subject award or an attendance and punctuality award. Their hard work deserves the recognition they have received.”

Anger over Esh Winning school closure plans

PARENTS and governors of one of the region’s greenest schools have vowed to fight council closure plans.

Friends of Esh Winning Primary School reacted with fury today after Durham County Council voted to relocate the school to a new site on the village green, at a cost of £7.3m.

They say leaving the current site, among woodland and wildlife, would jeopardise the school’s hard-earned green credentials.

The school’s garden won a prize at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and its green-fingered approach has attracted praise from several Government ministers.