Plans to create a £3.5m centre of creativity for young people in Northumberland have come a step closer.

Designs for the Tynedale Creative and Media Skills Centre - next to Prudhoe Community High School - have gone on public display.

The centre will house state-of-the-art media production facilities in a leading edge building shared across the Tynedale Virtual College - a partnership of the four high schools in the area along with Northumberland College, Dilston College and Hexham Priory School.

It is part of a successful £4.6m bid to the Government for exemplar diploma facilities, which also includes a satellite residential skills centre at Ridley Hall near Haydon Bridge.

Click through to local schools' performance tables:

Haydon Bridge Community High School and Sports College: GCSE (2009), Post-16 (2009)

Haltwhistle Community Campus Upper School: Key Stage 2 (2009)

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

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An emotional phone call united Northumbrian children with their African counterparts during a day celebrating their new-found friendship.

Gilsland Primary School pupils listened to children from the Kenyan village shout and sing to them on speaker phone to celebrate the start of a special friendship between the two schools during a day of African activities.

Organiser Sam Finn, who has spent time in Kenya and arranged the call, said: "I kept it as a surprise. When I told the head in the morning she was delighted. We put it on speaker phone and gathered in the entrance hall, and the children's faces lit up when they heard the voices.

The newly established Haltwhistle Community Campus in Haltwhistle which has brought together the former Haltwhistle First and South Tynedale Middle schools sharing the same site in the small industrial town in West Northumberland has gone another step further in its innovative approach.

Working with Flashlight Films, a DVD prospectus for parents now supplements the old printed brochure. Using the medium of film and sound prospective parents can see and hear about the school through using the innovative DVD which allows them to select the aspects of school life that they want to learn more about.

The initial design for an eco-centre at a Northumberland school will be unveiled tonight.

Sixth form students at Haydon Bridge High School have been closely involved in plans for the eco-centre and will be making presentations at a Zero Carbon public event at the school from 6pm.

The students have been working with Newcastle architects on the provisional plans, and a programme of public consultation will be held before a planning application is made to Northumberland County Council.

An Olympic athlete has been helping young scholars to celebrate a new chapter of their education.

Great Britain gold medalist Jared Deacon officially opened the newly established Haltwhistle Community Campus, inspiring youngsters at the specialist sports college to follow in his footsteps.

Jared, known for his role in the final of the men's 4x400 metres relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, met pupils and toured the facilities at the site - now the only 3 to 13 campus and specialist sports college in the country.

A Northumberland school is set to be transformed into a bed of creativity after a huge cash windfall.

The British Arts Council has donated £45,000 through its Creative Partnership Scheme to help Haydon Bridge Community High School enhance and develop creativity among teachers and pupils over a three-year period.

The project started yesterday [COR] with a host of experts offering activities from sculpture to food design, animation, rap and street dance.

Budding entrepreneurs from 12 Northumberland schools are preparing to pitch their ideas to judges in a contest which combines Dragons' Den with The Apprentice.

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.

A chronic shortage of affordable housing in rural areas is plunging traditional village life into terminal decline, according to a new report.

The National Housing Federation claims that many village shops and pubs in the North East will be forced to close down unless action is taken to address the lack of new, affordable homes.

Milfield, near Wooler

Nationally, it is thought up to 650 country pubs and 400 village shops will shut during the next 12 months, according to a coalition of leading campaign groups.