TWO of Bolton's top headteachers will be meeting "our Mo" today to pick up awards recognising the excellence of their schools.

Woodside Senior School head Tony Johns and Marion Evans, of Horwich's Claypool County Primary School, will be guests of honour at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London where they will receive the Government's prestigious Charter Mark from former Northern Ireland Minister Mo Mowlan.

For staff, pupils and parents at Chorley New Road's Woodside School it marks the second major Government award in as many weeks after they were named in Ofsted's annual roll of honour last week.

A delighted Mr Johns said this latest award could be particular attributed to parent power at the school, thanks to the work of their parent-group.

"We have received quite a few awards but the criteria we needed to fulfil for the Charter Mark has been by far the most rigorous we have experienced so far," he said.

"We had 10 criteria to fulfil and the examiners looked at school life from a parent's perspective by talking to our parent group."

Mr Johns said his school and Claypool have become the first in Bolton to receive the coveted award.

"The award is open to all public services and is dependent on the quality of service they provide," said Mr Johns. "We have high expectations at our school. Not just the staff and the parents, but the children have high expectations as well and this award again reinforces the fact that we must be doing something right."

The Charter Mark is awarded for three years after which time the individual organisation must apply again.

Joining Bolton's schools in receiving the Charter Mark today will be representatives from Bolton Council's Environment Department.

The department has received the award for the town's car parks and assistant director Brian Shaw said they had spent two years working on their award success.

"This award recognises a lot of things such as quality of service, offering choice to the customer, having proper procedures for dealing with the public's queries and working with partners," he said.

At the time of the Charter Mark inspection the department, which controls 30 car parks in the town centre alone, had four officers and 15 staff who had to deal with more than 1.5 million customers each year.

Mr Shaw said: "All our staff have had a hand in this award and it something they can all be proud off. It also recognises the development and investment we have made in recent years through the refurbishments of the Bow Street and Octagon car parks." TWO of Bolton's top headteachers will be meeting "our Mo" today to pick up awards recognising the excellence of their schools.

Woodside Senior School head Tony Johns and Marion Evans, of Horwich's Claypool County Primary School, will be guests of honour at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London where they will receive the Government's prestigious Charter Mark from former Northern Ireland Minister Mo Mowlan.

For staff, pupils and parents at Chorley New Road's Woodside School it marks the second major Government award in as many weeks after they were named in Ofsted's annual roll of honour last week.

A delighted Mr Johns said this latest award could be particularly attributed to parent power at the school, thanks to the work of their parent group.

"We have received quite a few awards but the criteria we needed to fulfil for the Charter Mark has been by far the most rigorous we have experienced so far," he said.

"We had 10 criteria to fulfil and the examiners looked at school life from a parent's perspective by talking to our parent group."

Mr Johns said his school and Claypool have become the first in Bolton to receive the coveted award.

"The award is open to all public services and is dependent on the quality of service they provide," said Mr Johns. "We have high expectations at our school. Not just the staff and the parents, but the children have high expectations as well and this award again reinforces the fact that we must be doing something right."

The Charter Mark is awarded for three years after which time the individual organisation must apply again.

Joining Bolton's schools in receiving the Charter Mark today will be representatives from Bolton Council's Environment Department.

The department has received the award for the town's car parks and assistant director Brian Shaw said they had spent two years working on their award success.

"This award recognises a lot of things such as quality of service, offering choice to the customer, having proper procedures for dealing with the public's queries and working with partners," he said.

At the time of the Charter Mark inspection the department, which controls 30 car parks in the town centre alone, had four officers and 15 staff who had to deal with more than 1.5 million customers each year.

Mr Shaw said: "All our staff have had a hand in this award and it is something they can all be proud of. It also recognises the development and investment we have made in recent years through the refurbishments of the Bow Street and Octagon car parks."