CHESTER-le-Street’s Park View School officially opened the refurbished library at its North Lodge site recently.

With funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation, improvements have been made such as new comfortable seating, including sofas and beanbags, along with a security system for logging books in and out.

The school was also able to replenish its fiction and non-fiction stocks and buy a set of Kindles.

The library was officially opened by author Karen Langtree, a former Park View student, who reconnected with the school through a chance meeting on a train with chairman of governors, Dr Bill Dennison.

She said: “It is an honour and great pleasure to be invited to open the new library. Park View was a great place for me to start my secondary education, a school that wasn’t so big that I felt lost and overwhelmed.

“Students are so enthusiastic about writing and have some marvellous ideas. May the new library provide many years of inspiration, wisdom and discovery to the pupils at Park View School.”

Headteacher Iain Veitch said: “Like everything else in our school, this is an investment in our students.

“I sincerely hope that it brings to them the joy and excitement which reading has always held for me. I wish my school library had looked like this when I was in Year seven.”