Teacher-playwright Paul Telfer had a show on the road last term with his play Somebody to Love about coping with adolescence when you have an eating disorder - the effect it has on you and your friends. Youth actors from The Arc, an arts centre in Stockton, took the play, followed by workshops, to several schools in the north-east.

Easington’s headteacher, Paul McHugh, said it dovetailed brilliantly with Year 9‘s PSHE programme and that students were “totally engrossed”. The East Durham health promotion unit funded the production at Easington, and has piloted a three-year project there, to help reduce exclusions. Since the pits shut, unemployment has cast a shadow over the area, but there is great enthusiasm for sport, fired up by coaching from the Sunderland Football Academy.

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* Quiet as a mouse: Helen Rutherford works in the library with Richard, Year 10

* Studied gaze:Rachel McManns, a youth actor from The Arc

* Centre-stage: teacher and playwright Paul Telfer

* Coach load: Year 7 pupils practise football skills

* Senior service: a Year 11 pupil helps with literacy

* Full circle: a Year 9 workshop after ‘Somebody to Love’

* Food for thought: Year 9 pupils watch the play

* Front-runners: on the Astroturf with Sunderland staff