D-Block was the worst of the school building: damp, rotten windows and doors, roof tiles missing, brickwork needing attention and even infestations. Not only was D-Block in a high delapidated/dangerous state it was further inadequate to serve as a secondary school building. A & D-Blocks were built in the 1930's as a junior/primary school and in the 1950's were subsumed into Lostock Secondary High School. The age of the building coupled with years of neglect by the Authority made one of the Inspector comment :...the best that could happen is to bomb it. Another HMI Inspector commented that the buildings were so bad that he wondered whether the head was a buildings manager?
Photo taken in May 2001
The LEA for some 18 months withheld nearly £1 million government grant to the school because the buildings were so bad. To spend the government funding ( insufficient to do all the work needed) was seen as a waste to spend on the school. When Ofsted commented on the neglect by the LEA - the LEA suspended the head and the delegated powers of the governors. I was publicly dismissed. As an elected member I had no rights of appeal, and then the LEA spent and spent to get the school building more acceptable.
The fatal flaw of hounding good people out, by demonising the head and the governors, by publicly praising the staff and by stopping plans and strategies including a curriculum/staffing restructure has yet again, left the children without the vital education that they deserve. Sadly, the school has serious weaknesses in 2006 (worse than in 2001) and they failed the performing arts college status in 2005 for which we had worked so hard. |
