Thorp Academy in Ryton was forced to convert to Academy status in September last year after it merged with another local school, Hookergate Comprehensive, in 2011.

Now, the Northern Education Trust who sponsor the Academy have proposed plans to make 31 members of quality staff redundant and are cutting RE, Politics, Media, PE and Spanish from the A-level curriculum.

We want our education at Thorp Academy, our local school, to be the best and as diverse as possible in order to give us a firm foundation for our future.