North East England

The highest point in the region is The Cheviot, in Northumberland, at 815 metres (2,674 ft). The principal city is Newcastle, with the largest city in terms of area and population being Sunderland.

As well as its urban centres of Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside the region is also noted for the richness of its natural beauty. Northumberland National Park, the region's coastline, its section of the Pennines and Weardale provides evidence for this. It also has great historic importance, the evidence of which is seen in Northumberland's Castles and the two World Heritage Sites of Durham Cathedral and Hadrian's Wall.

The shipbuilding industry that once dominated both Wearside and Tyneside suffered a terrible decline during the second half of the twentieth century. Tyneside is now re-inventing itself as an international centre of art and culture and, through The Centre For Life, scientific research (especially in stem cell technology). After suffering economic decline during the last century, Wearside is becoming an important area for quaternary industry, science and high technology. The economy of Teesside is largely based on its petrochemical industry. Northumberland and County Durham, both being largely rural, base much of its economy on farming and tourism. The North East has the lowest GDP/capita in England.

In May 2005 the 'Passionate people. Passionate places' Regional Image campaign was launched to promote North East England as a great place in which to work, study, visit and invest.

Education
The North East education system consists of largely comprehensive schools but with a number of private and independent schools found in Newcastle, Sunderland, Durham, Stockton and Northumberland in particular. At GCSE level, the region performs similar to other largely urban areas although generally results are below the national average. Middlesbrough performs the worst with average results significantly below the national average for England, followed closely by Newcastle and Sunderland. Both Northumberland and North Tyneside perform above average, with Northumberland the best. St Thomas More R.C. School in Blaydon (a voluntary funded Roman Catholic specialist technology college) and Emmanuel College (a selective independent state school) are two of the best performing schools in Gateshead. Other well performing schools in the region include Gateshead High School for Girls, Westfield School in Newcastle,Park View Community School in Durham and Lord Lawson of Beamish Community School in Birtley.

At A-level, local education authorities in the north east are improving at a greater rate than the national average, but produce results substantially below other areas of the England. Sunderland performs the best, followed by Darlington and Redcar and Cleveland. South Tyneside is the worst performing LEAs at A-level in the region.

The independent and private schools in the area perform highly. Central Newcastle High School and Royal Grammar School, Newcastle were both named in the top 100 independent schools nationally in 2006. Other well-performing private schools include Durham School, one of the oldest schools in England and Grindon Hall Christian School in Sunderland, a private non-selective school. The private schools out-perform the state schools.