SECONDARY NEWS
Yorkshire Water campaign helps Wakefield-based school with period education
Students at Outwood Academy City Fields are the latest to learn about sustainable period products and eradicating period poverty through Yorkshire Water and Hey Girls’ educational campaign.
The campaign aims to educate young people
about sustainable, reusable period products, and find an alternative method of disposal to flushing pads and tampons down the loo, which can cause blockages in the sewer network.
Yorkshire Water’s education team have devised a programme that includes sessions on period health and wellbeing for secondary school students. As well as distributing free ‘Full Cycle’ kits, the period health education sessions cover where to access products and explain the benefits of sustainable products.
Anne Reed, social value and education manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “We are proud to be working with Hey Girls to help educate young girls in Yorkshire about reusable, sustainable period products and the benefits they bring, both environmentally and financially.
“The aim is not to convert everyone to reusable products, but to use them as a gateway to openly talk about period poverty and the problems flushing single-use sanitary products can cause.”
The partnership will provide 20,000 reusable, sustainable period packs to a number of secondary schools across the region.
City Fields was selected to take part in the programme because blockages are a known issue in the area.
Helen Steele, assistant principal and teacher of PE at Outwood Academy City Fields, said: “Access to period products and education is a right for young women. Many young women don’t attend school because they are embarrassed about being on their period. Yorkshire Water and Hey Girls have taken steps to support schools in talking more openly about period health.”
Impington Village College is the UK’s top comprehensive school
Impington Village College (IVC) has been crowned the Comprehensive School of the Year 2025 and Comprehensive School of the Year in East Anglia 2025 in the Sunday Times Parent Power schools guide. The College, located on the outskirts of Cambridge, has been recognised for the broad and balanced education that it provides, which ensures students flourish academically and individually. Victoria Hearn, Executive Principal at Impington Village College, said: “I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the entire College community for their hard work and belief in our educational vision.
It ensures that each of our students achieve their very best and develop into caring, principled individuals equipped for a very bright future. The success of the College is in no small part down to our incredible staff body, and we invest heavily in their wellbeing and development..” As the UK’s first 11-18 state secondary school authorised to deliver three IB programmes, education at IVC stretches far beyond academic achievement and is designed so that students can find their area of excellence and develop a range of interests. As part of its commitment to international education, Key Stage 3 students typically study two languages, with six to choose from, including Latin, Mandarin and Italian.
Strengthening this commitment further, and developing students’ understanding of the world, IVC offers over 80 trips a year, from local museums and fieldwork opportunities, as far afield as Botswana, Peru and Japan, drawing on strong partnerships with schools overseas.
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www.education-today.co.uk
Building underway for St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham
School children at St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham recently participated in a steel foundations signing, as work began on site to install the building’s metal infrastructure.
Pupils and teachers from St Leonard’s and Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education
Trust (BWCET), along with representatives from the Department for Education and the appointed contractor, BAM, took part in the celebratory signing, where children were given the opportunity to write their names on the steel foundations.
St Leonard’s was named as one of the schools prioritised for the School Rebuilding Programme and work is well underway by BAM, with completion of phase 1 due for Easter 2026.
At the end of summer 2023, the pupils were faced with an unprecedented challenge, when BWCET was informed it needed to immediately close three of its schools due to concerns over dangerous RAAC concrete. St Leonard’s was one of the worst impacted.
The school, alongside the Trust and others in the wider school community, worked tirelessly to get children back into the classroom environment. From September 2023 pupils were taught across a range of sites. Limited parts of St Leonard’s that were RAAC-free were used, whilst others were taught at Ushaw College.
Whilst the new school is being built, pupils are being educated in a temporary new facility near St Leonard’s.
January 2025
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