Gurney Pease Academy | Ofsted Ratings, Reviews, Exam Results & Admission 2026

Gurney Pease High School (210 place Primary School plus 26FTE place nursery). The Education Village campus, which was inaugurated by Tony Blair, the then-Prime Minister, at Easter 2006, is shared by Haughton, Beaumont Hill, and Springfield. The three schools are housed in a cutting-edge structure paid for by a 27 million privately sponsored project (PFI). It provided something entirely fresh right away and quickly became synonymous with innovation and 21st-century learning. The Education Village was the first education organisation in the country to involve the creation of a single setting where schools are not just co-located on a single site, but actually live together under one roof. The Education Village was always more than a building housing three schools, it became the enactment of a vision of providing genuine personalised learning opportunities, utilising the skill and expertise cross phase and cross school. In the first two years after opening, the building attracted 4,000 visitors from all over the world due to how magnificent it was and is. More importantly, it offers top-notch resources for our students' and teachers' education. Moreover, it has become a centre for the community with opening hours from 8am - 10pm offering activities from Zumba to Karate. Gurney Pease Academy is situated in the Albert Hill area of Darlington in a beautiful, traditional primary school building and Marchbank Free School is based in Mowden Hall, a grade II listed building in the west of the town. The Chief Executive, the Director of Finance and Operations, and the Principal of each academy make up the Executive Leadership Team.