DANCERS and athletes will be kept on their toes as a North-East school boosts its sporting facilities.

Work is well under way constructing a fitness centre, dance studio and cricket facility at Barnard Castle School. The two-storey building will boast a sprung floor dance studio, weights room and fitness centre, showers and changing rooms.

It will also be a cricket pavilion with an electronic scoreboard that can be changed remotely from the boundary and a viewing balcony.

Construction work is expected to be finished by the end of the summer term. It will then be kitted out over the holidays in time for the start of term in September.

Deputy headteacher Oliver Marlow said: “Our girls and boys already show an amazing amount of talent and commitment in their chosen fields and the new facility is a vote of confidence in them by the governors.

“It is an important part of the school ethos to produce students who are happy and rounded, who can achieve their full potential academically and physically and the new centre can only help.”

Sixth former Jane Larcombe, 18, of Sedgefield, has been ballet dancing since she was three. She said: “The new sprung dance floor will provide a fantastic opportunity for students to learn the intricacies and pleasures of a full range of dance disciplines. It will be amazing.”

Second row forward in Barnard Castle School’s first XV rugby side Oscar Moore, 17, of Finghall, near Bedale, North Yorkshire, agreed.

“The new centre will help players achieve and sustain the physical fitness they need to compete at the highest level and go into professional sport if they want to,” he said.