A SCHOOL with an enviable reputation for sporting prowess is to improve its facilities further after securing more than £500,00 in funding.

Stokesley School, whose hall of sporting fame includes Commonwealth double gold medal winning track cyclist Charlie Tanfield, will now be able to revamp its PE facilities, some of which date back to the 1950s.

A member of the Areté Learning Trust with Richmond School, Stokesley School will see a new gym, showers and changing rooms created in a major redevelopment of sports facilities.

The school, which attracts students from Middlesbrough and North Yorkshire, was successful for the third time in its bid for funding from the Government’s Conditions Improvement Fund bringing to more than £2m funds secured to boost facilities since it became an academy in 2015.

Areté Learning Trust chief executive Catherine Brooker said: “Sport is such an important part of the curriculum, not just for our elite athletes but in improving health and wellbeing among all students.

“Our PE staff at Stokesley have been working wonders with the current facilities and I am sure will now go from strength to strength as the refurbishment brings this part of school into the 21st century.”

Architects have been appointed and the contract has gone out to tender. Work will be carried out over the summer holidays.

“It is going to be bright, cheerful, fit for purpose and just the sort of facility our staff and students deserve,” said Mrs Brooker.

“A huge amount of work went into the bid which had to meet strict criteria. "I’m delighted we have secured the funding because sport presents incredible opportunities and this can’t fail to help them compete.”