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CHARLESTOWN Primary School head Daniel Gauld with parents and staff protesting against the closure of his school
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Parents devastated by school closures
Ailsa Cranna6/ 3/2008
CAMPAIGNERS have vented their anger at the decision to close two inner city primary schools despite a spirited battle to save them.
Parents fighting to retain North Grecian Street and Charlestown primary schools have been told their efforts are in vain.
Both schools will close at the end of the summer term in 2010 and pupils will be transferred to a new school to be built on the former Wheaters Crescent housing estate in Lower Broughton.
Families said the new school would be too far for many children to walk to and hundreds signed petitions and attended a series of heated public meetings.
However, last week they all received letters from the Office of the Schools Adjudicator backing Salford council’s decision to close the schools.
Nigel Noden, 37, a parent governor at North Grecian Street Primary, said: "When we heard the news it was very upsetting.
"We knew that the school needed upgrading - it was after all 100 years old - but there was a great deal of affection for it and it was, and is, a vital part of the local neighbourhood.
"What really worries me, though, is that both North Grecian Street and Charlestown primary schools are pretty well up to their maximum capacities.
"If all the children from both schools are transferred to the new school - and it’s by no means certain that they will win a place - the school will be full up.
"Therefore, there will be no places for children from the new homes being built as part of the Lower Broughton regeneration project."
Fellow campaigner Carole Woodward, 50, whose daughter Emma, 10, attends North Grecian Street, added: "I am disgusted at the decision and feel that it was always a foregone conclusion.
"I think the council were always going to close the schools, no matter how strong the opposition around here is and no matter how many protested."
Robert Jackson, head of North Grecian Street Primary added: "We will work together with Charlestown to make sure the new school is a success and until the move it will be business as usual here."
Daniel Gauld, head of Charlestown Primary School, said: "We mounted a good fight to keep ourselves open, and had input from teachers, parents, governors and members of the local community."
Lead member for education, Councillor John Warmisham, said: "We completed the public consultation and the Adjudicator took it all on board and he came to the independent decision that the best thing for the children is an amalgamated school."
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