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ST GEORGE'S RC High School pupils Sam Ridings, 14, and Matt Robino, 12, with the petition.
ST GEORGE'S RC High School pupils Sam Ridings, 14, and Matt Robino, 12, with the petition.
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Pupils start a petition to save their school


30/11/2006

PUPILS at a closure-threatened high school took to the streets to collect signatures for a petition against the proposals.

Students from St George's RC High School in Walkden spent most of last Sunday at the Ellesmere Centre in Walkden to get shoppers to sign their petition.

Sam Ridings, Matthew Robino and Heather Ennis decided to reach out to the public for support as part of their GCSE citizenship course for which they are required to participate in a community project and write about the impact it has on others.

The school is facing closure under Salford City Council's Building Schools for the Future plans. The authority is receiving £110m of Government funding to transform secondary schools in the city.

Paul Hanratty, head of citizenship at the Parsonage Drive school, said: "The community's support was fantastic last Sunday outside the Ellesmere Centre. Almost 500 signatures were given and words of encouragement for their campaign were uplifting."

Pupils, parents and staff are outraged by the council's plans and say they will not give up the fight to save St George's.

Deputy headteacher Peter Fisher said: "To quote the city council, 'the purpose of the massive investment is to achieve a complete turnabout in the educational attainment of the city's pupils'.

"How? By closing a school which is fourth in Salford's league table for GCSE A*-C including English and mathematics in 2006. By closing a school which has the third best English Key Stage 3 SAT results in Salford at level 5+ which is incidentally 22 per cent above the Salford average? By closing the school with the second best maths results in the city at level 7+ in this summer's Key Stage 3 tests? This is a nonsense - Alice in Wonderland politics."

Pupils will be collecting signatures once again this weekend. They will be outside the Ellesmere Centre between 2pm and 4pm on Saturday, December 2.


| Submit CommentSubmit Comments | View CommentsView Comments(3)


Most recent 2 of 3 user comments

   eww harrop fold is not a dump maybe we have had bad press and head teachers quittin and teachers leaving but if it isnt for harrop fold i would not be walkin out of that places with 10 or more gcse's
zowie, little hulton
20/04/2007 at 15:45
   i think the threat to close st georges high school is stupid because there was no point spending £25m on harrop fold when that school and there ideas need help. I am a pupil at st. georges and feel very stongley about the closure. So think about the dump of harrop fold and close that instead of the decent st georges what has a good education and the other pupil like this schoool so think of the pupils instead of the money
lauren, walkden
12/02/2007 at 12:53
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