Last week I popped in to the Excelsior Academy in West Newcastle, to meet hundreds of the students, do a Q and A on life as an MP, and also meet the specific students [pictured] who I helped sponsor in their trip to the Everest Base Camp. They are a great bunch and their trip was a huge success. At 17,500 feet they certainly needed the woolly hats I bought them! If you have not been to Excelsior, and if you have any doubts about Academies, I urge you to go - it is an outstanding school, with a turnaround story that needs to be seen to be believed. This school is local proof that Academies really work.
