Talking Thirsk - Back to School ...

In the old days, every village had its hierarchy, the squire, the priest, the doctor and the schoolmaster.

The latter, in Thirsk, is represented by not just an individual, but by an institution, in the shape of Thirsk School and Sixth Form College.

It serves, not just the town, but also a ring of outlying villages, as evidenced by the string of coaches that bring pupils to and fro each day of term time.

Our economy faces challenges, and our school system is at the forefront in preparing the new generations who will have to answer those challenges.

I was privileged to be allowed to visit the school, where my guide was Gordon Pentland, deputy headmaster and head of the Sixth Form College, which although it is an integral part of the school has a separate identity, to provide a more appropriate atmosphere to pupils who in earlier generations would have been regarded as young adults, and more than likely, have left education for the world of work.

Mr Pentland has been at the school for twenty seven years, and with the head of the school, Emma Lambden, has forged an atmosphere of achievement and positivity which is evident as you move around the school, and talk to any of the pupils.

The system is working its way out of the hiatus of Covid, the problem of A Level students being confronted with their first daunting public examination has been passed...

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