Seventeen-year-old James Daly has been recognised as one of the UK’s top new musical talents, following great success this summer when he travelled to Ibiza to compete in the British Student DJ championships.

Knowing that she had not fulfilled her full potential in her GCSEs, 16-year-old Susannah Start-Williams was still determined to pursue her dream of a career in animal care. In July last year she was invited to attend the ‘Get to Know NCN’ session at New College Nottingham, a one-day course, built around the NCFE Level 1 Award in Exploring Enterprise Skills, that combines Employability and Personal Skills Training with an overview of college life.

The leading educational and research institution in Cyprus is to be fitted with more than 100 Exit Stoppers from STI (Europe) as part of an ongoing building programme to expand the university campus with the addition of 16 new faculty buildings.

The King Edmund School (KES), located in Rochford, Essex was designated one of the first Business and Enterprise Specialist Schools in the UK. The school is becoming increasingly well known for some of its great work in vocational training and teaching in science and business.  Their strength as a provider of business education has long been recognised and they boast some of the finest facilities in the area.  The 1,500 students also enjoy the many links they have with local, national and international businesses.

The comprehensive school - Lord Lawson of Beamish, appointed SportsArt Fitness UK to assist them in planning and supply of equipment as part of a “Fitness Suite Project” headed up by John Reach Deputy Head teacher and Iain Beveridge Director of Services.

As part of Gateshead’s Schools PFI project, the Lord Lawson school was rebuilt on the existing site and with both John and Iain playing leading roles in designing the school, they were very clear on how the new building should be developed to encourage students to lead healthier and fitter lives. Even though space was at a premium, a 40sq.m. air conditioned fitness room was included in the plans and was designed to be used during and after school by staff, students and the wider public. 

Thomas Deacon Academy is a new school with big ambitions. Opened in in 2007, it aims to maximise the achievement of every one of its 2,200 pupils, aged between 11 and 18. Students come from across the city of Peterborough, around 40 miles north of Cambridge.

Academic success is the priority, with 91 per cent of Year 11 students receiving five A*-C grades at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level, and A level students achieving an average of three B grades. Endeavour is paying off, with education watchdog OFSTED’s latest stringent assessment recognising the Academy as a ‘good’ school.

This month sees the launch of a new student reward programme at Great Wyrley Performing Arts High School in Staffordshire.  “We already have pretty good attendance rates, but are always looking for ways to improve this, together with pupil attainment and behaviour,” comments Barry Stokes, Head of year 10.  “We continue to award certificates throughout the school, however once our pupils reach teenage years we’ve found that they are more responsive when we introduce additional incentives.  Last year, for example, we took a group of year 10 students (aged14/15 years) to a nearby army barracks for a day where they were able to participate in assault courses and other challenging activities.  This year we decided to use gift vouchers - they are both simple to administer, yet extremely effective, and our pupils have expressed keen interest.  After some initial research New Look came out as the store of choice – it offers great value fashion and we have nearly ten stores within a ten mile radius, so it’s very accessible to everyone.”

Cromer High School, a mixed 11-16 foundation International Sports College located in Cromer, Norfolk, welcomes over 520 students into its classrooms each year. Its student curriculum focuses on PLTS – personal, learning and thinking skills – which is the core set of skills pupils must satisfy during their secondary curriculum to help them become “successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.”

Promethean has launched ‘give every child a voice’, a recycling campaign among Scottish schools to support the NSPCC’s ChildLine service in Scotland – the 24 hours-a-day helpline for children and young people.

Schools and learning facilities in Kent and Essex have adopted audio and video distribution solutions from Magenta Research to provide versatile AV for new flagship learning centres, as part of the UK Government’s Building Schools for The Future (BSF) initiative to renew the educational infrastructure.

Children and young people who are victims of bullying at school are often told they ‘shouldn’t suffer in silence’ - and their first response should be to tell someone. But what happens if children are too scared or embarrassed to talk to their teachers, or even their parents?

City of Sunderland College which has trained over 300 learners in the past year for careers in the region’s contact centres, is said to be the only provider to achieve the Training Quality Standard (TQS) for contact centre services.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) will be supporting this year’s National Schools’ Fire Safety Week (4th – 8th October 2010) a national initiative co-ordinated by The Fire Fighters Charity and the Communities and Local Government Fire Kills Campaign to help raise awareness of the dangers of fire and educate children about fire safety.

Yellow Woods Challenge - the award winning eco-educational initiative run by Yell – is making a welcome return this school year after a major makeover.

Twelve young people have been given the chance to start new careers in the Yorkshire countryside this summer, thanks to a major new trainee scheme which is helping skilled young people to stay in the area.