A COUNTY Durham school is leading the way in a new initiative designed to reduce the workload of teachers.

Woodham Community Technology College in Newton Aycliffe is one of the first to take part in the School Remodelling Programme launched by the DfES this month.

The idea behind the scheme is to allow teachers to spend more of their time on teaching and spending valuable time with students, rather than on the administrative tasks associated with the job.

Some of these tasks, such as collecting money, chasing absences and producing class lists, have been efficiently carried out for some time by administrative staff at Woodham.

By introducing the new measures, however, it means that more of the non-teaching tasks are now being removed from the teaching workload.

Classroom assistants have been attached to every department in the school and their responsibilities include photocopying, record keeping, filing, classroom displays and inputting of student data.

A professional development programme has been put in place to allow the classroom assistants to provide high quality support throughout the college.

As part of this programme, the college has developed its own tailor-made, in-house ICT training package, which will equip the team with the skills necessary to produce resources using the college's networked computer system.

Steve Harness, headteacher at Woodham, said: "We now have an important team of colleagues providing invaluable support across every curriculum area of the college.

"It is up to us to develop their skills in order to have the maximum impact upon the working lives of students and teachers for the benefit of us all."