MOORSIDE Community College at Consett has been designated with technology status.
The school will receive £100,000 Government funding to improve facilities, plus an extra £129 per pupil for the next four years.
It will use its extra resources as part of a four-year plan to improve teaching of technology, science and maths, and to enhance community education in Moorside's new neighbourhood learning centre.
Headteacher Jonathan Morris said: "We're delighted to have been given this recognition of our good work.
"It's been a real team effort involving staff, students, parents, partner primary schools, the local authority, community groups and sponsors from the business world."
He pledged it will see local youngsters attending 'a real school for the future', from September.
The school was among six in County Durham awarded specialist status. Deerness Valley School, at Ushaw Moor, has become the country's first business, technology and enterprise college.
County education director Keith Mitchell described the awards as, excellent news, building on the county's best-ever attendance levels and GCSE results this year.
It means 27 of the county's 36 secondary schools now have specialist status, among the highest proportions for any education authority in the country.
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