Parents determined to save Grange School

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to save Grange School from the bulldozers.

Organisers say 80 to 90 people attended a meeting at Rochdale Road Community Centre about plans to replace the school with an academy sponsored by Edutrust.

This would open on the Our Lady’s RC High School site in Royton by 2013, with Catholic pupils moving to a new town-centre school.

The proposals are part of Oldham’s £230 million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) plans to transform secondary education.

They include replacing five schools with three academies in areas which aim to attract mixed intakes rather than all white or all Asian.

However, opponents say that the academies are not locally accountable, are more expensive to build than traditional schools, and do not improve results.

Former Grange pupil Dara Miah (34), spokesman for Save Grange School, said the group had been set up by parents and ex-students

His three children are due to attend the school and he said: “We are against the closure of Grange School because the community will lose more than just a school.

“It will lose access to the school’s communal facilities, the sports hall and may also lose access to school-owned synthetic pitches which are heavily used.

“The proposed location of the academy in Royton will mean inconvenience of further travel to school by a community in which most people do not have their own transport.”

Mr Miah criticised the council’s consultation on the proposals, claiming poor advertising and access problems at meetings.

He also believes that building a new school would not raise standards, adding: “Academies are failing to raise attainment in GCSE results.

“The interest of all would be better served if BSF money were used to rebuild Grange on its existing site.

“Retain the school under local authority control, make necessary changes to the management structure and where necessary appoint proficient teaching staff.”