The following article was submitted by Lady Lumley’s.

          We have been successful in our bid to be an International Baccalaureate School. This success is wonderful news for the school and for the students who will take this course. This is a major feather in our cap and a real bonus for the whole of North Yorkshire. There are only 106 schools in the United Kingdom who are accredited to teach the International Baccalaureate and very few of these are state schools like Lady Lumley's.

          Another piece of good news is that we have been re-designated as a Specialist Sports College. You may remember the school making a successful bid for Specialist Status in 2005. Re-designation now follows Ofsted inspections, and since our inspection in October the powers that be have looked at the Ofsted report and our school development plan and decided that we are doing a very good job and deserve to be re-designated.

          After two full decades of dedicated service Andrew Clark, head teacher of Pickering Community Junior School, will be retiring at the end of the academic year. During his period in charge of the school there has been a dramatic improvement in school accommodation but, more importantly, he managed to improve the standard of education provided, beneficially affecting the lives of many hundreds of Pickering children and they, along with the town owe him a lasting debt of gratitude. The Beacon team wish him a long and happy retirement.

Beacon Report.