A HEADTEACHER has condemned "an increasing neglect of children in society".

Mr Jeff Mills, head of Rivington and Blackrod High School, also spoke of the growing number of children experimenting in sex, drugs and alcohol, in spite of warnings from schools.

He said schools needed the help of parents "and society in general" to enable children to understand why they needed to learn.

In his presentation evening speech Mr Mills went on to praise the work carried out in his school saying: "Whatever happens in the world outside I am pleased to say this school continues to achieve many successes and few failures.

"It achieves academic success for a very large majority while promoting acceptable attitudes, values and standards for all, based on it is wrong to hurt but right to love and support."

Mr Mills, due to retire from the Horwich school in August next year, talked of schools providing a guarantee of "continuity, stability and a framework of control" and of children being unable to rely on "the family, church, youth and social services" which he described as "crumbling pillars on which children can no longer lean".

Speaking at his 14th and last senior presentation evening after 15 years as head, Mr Mills said: "The UK has the highest divorce rate in Europe and an increasing number of children in the care of adults, other than their natural parents.

"Are we really surprised at two recent reports which show children from single parent families or split marriages are more likely to experience trouble or be in trouble, and violent films and videos do have a bad influence on some children?"

He said schools and teachers had "allowed themselves to take on full responsibility for not only the education but also the social and personal development of children, and find themselves condemned for their efforts."

He added: "Am I getting old and my judgements failing, or is more and more responsibility for children being abandoned by more and more adults?"

Mr Mills spoke of the pupils' successes in school at both GCSE and A' level.

He said results in 1997, at A' level, fell "fractionally short of last year's best ever achievements".

A total of 92 candidates achieved 304 pass grades. Of the 92, 47 candidates achieved four or more passes and 86 of the 92 students gained at least two or more passes. One exceptional student obtained six grade A passes at A level and is heading for Cambridge University. A total of 73 students left for university in September this year.

GCSE results did not, he said, "quite match our outstanding achievement of the last four years", but had been predicated. However one "outstanding" student achieved 11 grade A passes.

Mr Mills said the last five years at the school should have given many people "considerable satisfaction".

He said the demand for places at the school had been anywhere between 350 and 450 first choices and GCSE and A level results between 1994 and 1997 "included the best ever and second best ever set of results at both 16 and 18 in the history of the school".

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