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Growing focus on learning prompts new idea from News

The Cumberland News has launched a new monthly education supplement which aims to tap into a growing focus on the importance of education in Cumbria.

The first issue of learning, a 32-page magazine-style publication, has been unveiled to readers this week and will be given away with the Carlisle-based broadsheet weekly.

The supplement includes news and in-depth features on pre-school, primary, secondary, higher and further education, as well as adult learning, and several headteachers and college principals have signed up as columnists.

The launch coincides with the culmination of a campaign in the county for a University of Cumbria which is believed to be on the brink of success.

Carlisle already has three separate higher education institutions with around 4,000 students, and a proper university is seen as key to transforming the Cumbrian economy, badly hit by the foot and mouth crisis and job losses in the industrial areas of Barrow and West Cumbria.

Editor Keith Sutton said: “We have produced learning at a timely moment in the city’s development.

“The reaction we have had from the education world, the public, other local media and advertisers has been extremely encouraging and we are looking forward to the magazine becoming a key focus and forum for the challenges facing Cumbria.

“It’s also an extremely bright and positive publication, reflecting all the good work already going on in education in Cumbria.”

The supplement was designed by Carlisle News & Star deputy editor Richard Eccles and will be edited by features editor Kath Smart, with most of the copy produced by feature writer Eleanor Wilson.

Future issues set to be tackled by the supplement include raising staying on rates, improving exam results and increasing the number of Cumbrians going to university.

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