A Bishop Auckland school is among an elite group of eight chosen for a national learning project.

Bishop Barrington School is the only one in County Durham selected for Assessment for Learning (AFL), which will investigate learning and hopes to improve standards in the classroom.

A spokesman for the school, which has improved its GCSE results over the past few years, said: "We were chosen because we are good.

"AFL is about letting pupils know where they are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there. It can improve GCSE grades by at least half a grade."