Most improved school in England; Rochdale Council couldn’t care less.

Posted By: Robin Parker
Date Posted: 08/12/2007

It is of course great news that Furrow community school on Langley has received such great SAT results and is in fact the most improved primary school in England. In the Rochdale statistics the only other school that pips it is St Michael’s, Bamford, in ‘silver spoon’ country.

Furrow is shortly to be merged with Langley Primary School to form Bowlee Park Community Primary School and the good news is that the management team from Furrow will be continuing the good work in the new school. The bad news is that not all Langley children will be able to take advantage of it.

This is because officers in the Education Department will not recognise the regeneration which is taking place on Langley. They are only allowing 60 children in as a two form entry school. It’s not as though they haven’t got the money. A three form entry would cost around an extra half a million on the current refurbishment programme, far less than will be received from the sale of Alkrington Moss.

No, the reason is because they want children from Langley to travel to schools where there are spare places elsewhere in Middleon. Apart from the travelling, these schools have not reached the standards that Furrow/Bowlee have achieved and it is unacceptable for our children to have anything less. The Staff, the Governors, the Councillors and the Community Activists on the estate have worked hard to achieve these standards and regenerate the estate. New homes are being snapped up as soon as they are built. The developers themselves see the education of children as a key selling point for their properties. Many more homes are in planning which will easily fill a three form entry school.

Sadly, regeneration is not a word in education parlance. All they want to do is crunch their numbers and to hell with the communities they screw up in the process. If we are talking ‘Aiming High’ and regeneration of the Borough, then it has to be said that these officers are not fit for purpose. Lord Adonis, the Education Minister, has said: “Congratulations to Furrow Community School in Rochdale which tops the list for the most sustained improvement in all England”. What will he think when he hears of this?