Pupils, parents and staff from Seaton Sluice Middle School held their star party which was organised by the school's science department. It was attended by more than 80 enthusiastic young astronomers It is the third year the school has held the event.

Although adverse weather conditions confined the activities to indoors, everybody had the opportunity to explore a range of equipment provided by members of Newcastle and Sunderland Astronomical Societies and by the children themselves.

Astley Community High School: GCSE (2009), Post-16 (2009)

Whytrig Community Middle School: Key Stage 2 (2009)
Seaton Sluice Middle School: Key Stage 2 (2009)

Comparative tables for Northumberland schools: Key Stage 2, GCSE, Post-16

Children at Seaton Sluice Middle School decided to give £400 of the money they raised to their favourite charities, rather than keeping it all for the school to carry out improvements.

It was entirely their own idea and class representatives on the school council voted to give £400 of the money raised from their sponsored fun run to charity.

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Seaton Sluice Middle School is celebrating the success of its most hardworking pupils by giving students house points.

House points are earned in a variety of ways, including quality work, a positive attitude in lessons, quality homework returned on time, correct uniform and equipment and a week of full attendance.

With higher than average maths and English results, the school also operates many extracurricular activities, and helps children to attend by providing taxis home where necessary. It has also secured extra funding for maths and ICT through Specialist School Status, which also helps other subjects too.

The youngsters entertained about 70 former P&G workers with favourite carols at an annual Christmas reunion.

Headteacher Linda Nicholls, pictured, said: "We've had links with P&G for more than 20 years. Parents and grandparents of our children work for the company so we were delighted to provide some festive entertainment.''

Class representatives on the School Council voted to give £400 of the money raised from their sponsored fun run to charity, instead of keeping it all for school improvements. Head of the School Council, Lauren Hindmarsh, 12, said: "We felt it unfair to keep all the money for ourselves."

The Youth Intelligence campaign is being run by students at Astley Community High School.

The high school students will be competing at the Alnwick Garden Pavilion tomorrow evening in the final of the Northumberland Enterprise Learning Network challenge for school-based companies.

The teams will champion their individual business ventures in a range of categories to a judging panel including Garden managing director Mike Dukes and County Durham estate agent and recent Apprentice contestant, Philip Taylor.

The event was the culmination of a coaching initiative by Cramlington and Seaton Valley's Schools Sport Partnership delivered by Cramlington Rockets head coach Steve Beaty.

The National Champion Schools event is one of rugby league's greatest success stories, attracting young participants from throughout the UK.

Schools in Cramlington and Seaton Valley took part in the project, organised by Northumberland County Council's community safety team.

Pupils were visited by neighbourhood police officers, who have been working in partnership with the County Council's safer communities unit.

The 13-year-old is the best in Britain, and now the ambitious teenager is aiming one stride further as he sets his sights on the Olympics.

Lewis beat hundreds of other horse riders in the British Junior Showjumping Championships and brought home the gold. He was one of 800 riders to compete in the top national competition, held in Crick in Wales, and brought the medal back to the North East.

He fought off stiff competition from the under-16s across Britain at the David Broome Events Centre.

Atkinson House Special School in Seghill will be able to cater for 80 pupils instead of the current 40 when a major building extension is completed.

The investment will also benefit council taxpayers as it will reduce the need to spend money on expensive out-of-county placements for local youngsters.

Pupils at Atkinson House School, in Seghill, have raised thousands of pounds over the last seven years to build, staff and maintain a primary school in Busumballa, Gambia.

Now, they are desperate for help to bring the vital gift of water to the school and the community.