Richmond MP Rishi Sunak has visited one of the secondary schools in his constituency to hear about the progress being made by pupils.
In the last year, Risedale Sports and Community College has improved its attendance and absence record and reduced the number of exclusions.
It has also introduced a prefects system to promote responsibility and introduced the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme to increase confidence and resilience.
The curriculum has been expanded to include more languages and social studies to widen pupil experience and opportunity.
Links with local primary schools have been improved with more transition days and activities to help primary pupils make the switch to secondary school more smoothly.
This has resulted in more pupils attending. This year’s intake was 144 pupils up from around 90 in previous years.
Risedale Sports and Community College has been steadily improving since an 2013 Ofsted inspection report rated the Catterick Garrison secondary school as “Requiring Improvement”.
A follow-up inspection in 2015 recognised the improvement by rating the school as “Good”.
A new principal, Colin Scott, was appointed a year ago and a new governing body started work in April. The new governing body was established after it was decided to end the school’s partnership, and shared governors, with Northallerton College.
The partnership was established in 2009 as part of efforts to remove the school from special measures – standards deemed as unacceptable by Ofsted
During his visit, Mr Sunak met Mr Scott, members of the school council, and one of the new governors, Lt Col Joe Jordan, who is the Garrison Commander for Catterick.
Mr Sunak said he had been impressed by the school’s recent achievements and the plans for the future.
He said: “Running a secondary school in a Garrison town is very difficult because of the turnover of pupils caused by Army deployments. The progress the school has made is very encouraging.”
“I was also very pleased to see better links with the local community, both civilian and military. I am sure having governors of the calibre of Lt Col Jordon will be a massive asset to the school.”