Thorp Academy

Thorp Academy is a secondary school in Ryton, Tyne and Wear, England. The school teaches students who come mostly from the local Ryton and Crawcrook area, though some students residing in Greenside, Prudhoe and Winlaton also attend.The school is named after Charles Thorp who was a rector of the parish of Ryton and, later, Archdeacon of Durham and the first warden of the University of Durham.HistoryThe Thorp School, a Church of England Foundation, was built in 1861. In 1890 there were 200 pupils and 7 teachers. The school name was changed to Ryton Comprehensive School (date unknown). In 2005 there were 1270 pupils with over 200 in the sixth form, and 84 teachers.Ryton Comprehensive School was threatened with closure as part of a review of secondary education in Gateshead in 2009. It was eventually decided that the school should remain open. The school's rating declined during this time from "good, with outstanding features" to receiving a Notice to Improve in 2011 which was removed in March 2012 when the school was judged Satisfactory. The school was judged to have serious deficiencies in September 2013.In 2003/4 the school improved some facilities thanks to a £3 million investment by Gateshead LEA and the Big Lottery Fund. That development saw the construction of an additional sports hall, three new science laboratories, a purpose-built drama studio, a suite of music rooms, enhanced art and graphics areas and new modern foreign language classrooms. More recently the LA invested £2 million in a new classroom block housing Learning Support and Art/Media.