We have been re-awarded Technology College status for a further four years. This is an acknowledgement of the school’s achievements since it received the initial award in 2002. £500,000 has been invested since then to raise standards and provide better learning facilities.

This time we were invited to apply for a second specialist role too. This invitation is only made to high performing schools so we were proud to be asked and we chose to focus on staff training and professional development. Now we are pleased to report that our application has been successful: from April Tuxford School is not only a technology college, but also a training school.

For several years Tuxford has had a good reputation for initial teacher training, staff induction and the continuing professional development of the whole school workforce. Now we have official recognition too. The aims of Training Schools are to build good practice in all aspects of training and to share this good practice with other schools and training providers so we will simply be doing more of the same in future.

We will receive comparatively small sums of extra funding, through the Standards Fund, to carry out training activities. Classroom research will be conducted, new teaching methods will be promoted and new materials developed as part of the programme of activities so staff will benefit from an even more stimulating teaching environment and students will benefit from the flow of ideas and new skills.