Continuing our series that looks at the past of local schools, Rebecca Dew investigates the schools that came together in 2006 to form the Darlington Education Village
THE Education Village, on Salters Lane South in Darlington, compromises Springfield Academy, Beaumont Hill Academy and Haughton Academy. It was opened in 2006 by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in a state of the art £27m building, which has already provided hundreds of children with personalised, inclusive and innovative education.
Before 2006 however, the academies were individual schools providing thousands more children with education, the oldest of the schools dating back to 1929.
Beaumont Hill started as three separate schools – Salters Lane, Glebe Road and Mayfair. Springfield was a primary which was built on farmland and opened in 1954, and Haughton Community School was a comprehensive. Its first block opened in 1958, its second in 1973 and was further extended in 1980.
With the old schools maintaining important memories for many of Darlingtonians, we had a look through Springfield's archived photos from the 1980s to find how what education looked before the Education Village came about. Can you spot yourself?
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