A PIONEERING partnership between two Darlington schools will end this summer - a year ahead of schedule.

Successful Hurworth Comprehensive formed a federation with Eastbourne in July 2003 after the latter was put into special measures by the Government after an Ofsted inspection.

Eamon Farrar, the then head of Hurworth, was made federation chief executive, and worked with Dean Judson, his successor, and Karen Pemberton, who had recently been made head of Eastbourne.

Nearly £1m has been spent on refurbishing Eastbourne and £750,000 on a new maths resource centre at Hurworth.

Staff from both schools shared expertise and various initiatives brought pupils together. A mentoring system won national acclaim.

As a result, Eastbourne's GCSE results showed a dramatic improvement and in November last year a record 33pc of pupils achieved at least five passes at grades A* to C.

Consequently the school was taken out of special measures and the federation will officially end on July 31, although the two schools will continue to work closely together.

Mr Farrar will be based at Hurworth with a new role supporting other schools in the borough.

* On Tuesday, Darlington Council's cabinet agreed to bid for millions of pounds of Government funding to carry out a £15m facelift at Hummersknott School and Language College.

As reported in last week's D&S Times, the 1,200-plus pupil school, the largest in the town, is in such poor condition that education officials fear a major failure of plant would result in temporary closure.

The cabinet agreed to invest £3m in the project and bid for the rest from the Government's targeted capital fund.