This is a press release by the Atherton Demands Its Own High School group:
Members of the Atherton Demands Its Own High School (ADIOHS) campaign group have warmly welcomed Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham's decision to ask the Chief Schools Adjudicator to turn down Wigan Council's application to bring forward the originally planned closure date of Hesketh Fletcher High School by one year.
They are also supporting his call for the people of Atherton to have a new opportunity to debate the long term options for secondary education in the town given the closure proposal was explicitly linked to Wigan Council's ill-fated 'Building Schools for the Future' programme which included the expansion of Westleigh High School and the establishment of a 14-19 College at the existing Hesketh Fletcher High School site.
Speaking on behalf of ADIOHS, which has been campaigning for an adequately funded, educationally high achieving, non-denominational, community run high school to replace the existing HFHS set up, Chair Stephen Hall said: "We agree totally with Andy Burnham that the Council have got this wrong and that we need a re-run consultation on this broader question as we have been advocating.
"As a group we are confident that were such a broader consultation to take place we would be able to demonstrate to the Council that there would be the necessary parental and community support to sustain the vision of a school we have been proposing. We believe such a school should remain within the local authority's family of schools and run by our community in partnership with the Council, ideally in close relationship with neighbouring Fred Longworth High School which as an outstanding rating with OFSTED. We'd like to see a similar rating given to the new Atherton High School we are wanting to set up.
"Given the new Government's axing of Wigan's BSF programme the situation we presently face is completely different to that which the Schools Adjudicator was told it would be, and the basis on which his decision was made. It is good to see Andy has clearly recognised this and is batting for Atherton on the issue. It seems clear to us from his statement to the press last week, that he recognises the previous commitments to parents and students and the long term secondary educational needs of our town should come before any short term financial considerations of the Council, in addition to any potential upset his stand might cause to his own Labour Party colleagues in Wigan."
Issued by Stephen Hall
Chair, Atherton Demands Its Own High School
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