WHEN a brand new school opened in Prudhoe last September, pupils and staff couldn’t wait to get started.

They knew that at a cost of £12.5m, Prudhoe High School finally had a state-of-the-art facility to meet 21st century educational needs.

The new-build offered a sports hall, dance studio and dedicated theatre space, as well as a versatile main hall.

It was built on the football pitches of the old school, which dated back to 1958 and had served the community well.

The old site held fond memories for generations of former pupils, but school leaders said the new building was equipped to help every child achieve their best.

The dream of a new high school for Prudhoe was made possible after Northumberland County Council was successful with a funding bid to the European Funding Agency.

But the local authority is well aware that Prudhoe is not the only school in Tynedale in need of investment.

Alarming figures, published last week by the National Audit Office (NAO), revealed the dilapidated state of the county’s school buildings.

A NAO report stated that £2,000 per pupil needed to be spent to bring school buildings up to a satisfactory condition in Northumberland.

Other parts of the country were much better off in terms of infrastructure, with the report claiming that just £100 per pupil needed to be spent in Stoke-on-Trent.

Northumberland County Council has pledged to invest more than £100m over the next three years, “in a range of new schools and improvements across the county.”

Northumberland currently has 178 schools in a mix of two-tier and three-tier education, and buildings of various shapes and sizes.

So what are the priorities for school building investment in Tynedale?

Former Haydon Bridge High School pupil Dan MacMillan spends much of his time working at schools around the district as a sports coach.

The 21-year-old is in his final year at Northumbria University studying sports development with coaching, with the ultimate goal of becoming a PE teacher.

Dan said: “I do a lot of my coaching at small rural first schools and the staff have to be versatile with the limited facilities and resources they have.

“A main hall will be used for school meals and assemblies as well as sport, so before you begin, you might have to move tables and chairs, and there might be a piano in the corner.

“Purpose-built facilities make life easier for teachers, because they can plan for lessons knowing they are going to take place in the right environment.

“I believe all schools should receive better investment, regardless of their size, or how many pupils they have.

“In many cases it would be improving existing buildings, but that investment would make a big difference to the lives of those young people.”

Dan said that Monkseaton High School in Whitley Bay and John Spence High School in North Shields were good examples of modern schools outside Northumberland which had benefited from investment.

He added: “The modern facilities give everyone a lift. Haydon Bridge High and Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High have both looked a bit run down for some time.”

Last December, the county council unveiled a proposal to close Haydon Bridge High as part of a merger with QEHS.

The plan included a new £46m ‘super’ school at the west end of Hexham, but it was thrown out by the Government. Haydon Bridge High now looks set to remain open and become a sponsored academy under the direction of the Bright Tribe multi-academy trust.

Local county councillor Alan Sharp said: “As an academy, Haydon Bridge will break free from local authority control, but if Bright Tribe takes over, we all want to see that school prosper and benefit from the level of investment its pupils deserve.”