Closure-threatened school rejects 40 pupils

12:38pm Friday 7th March 2008

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A SCHOOL threatened by closure was forced to reject 40 pupils who had hoped to start there next summer.

St George's RC School in Kearsley has places available for 110 new starters but received applications from around 150.

Parents and children learned if they had secured their preferred place earlier this week.

And appeals from those who missed out at St Gerorge's have already started to arrive at the school.

Headteacher Phil Harte said: "We are going to be oversubscribed again. This year I was asked more questions than ever by parents about the future of the school. I assured them that I together with the Diocese had absolute confidence in the school's future but could not give them a 100 per cent guarantee.

"They accepted my assurance."

He added: "It is extremely heartening to know that given news of the proposed closure which has now being going on for two years that we still have the tremendous support of the community. Numbers of children wishing to come to this school have been increasing over the past two years even though there is this threat."

The head said that most of the pupils who had received places at the school had put it down as their first choice.

Mr Harte said: "We are already getting appeal applications from parents who want their child to attend this school."

The figure in Salford as a whole for children get a place at the school of their choice was 82.9 per cent.

Council bosses want to close the school, which takes pupils from Bolton, under £150 million plans to refurbish secondary education in Salford. St George's RC is the only school earmarked for closure under the plans.

The Bolton News reported earlier this week that 17 per cent of children in Bolton - around 600 - had failed to secure their choice of secondary school.