DEANE School is not only known as a respected place of academic learning but the site of a famous farm. So, plans to decimate it by selling off more than half the grazing land and turning other green land into a car park is distressing.

Hundreds of children have gleaned pleasure and practical education from the School's animals, nurtured for over 30 years by teacher Fred Tyldesley.

Now, parents are organising a petition and there are calls for the Prime Minister to intervene. We sincerely hope that there is a re-think on this way of raising cash.

Rural studies may not rank as highly as maths and English on the curriculum, but they teach children valuable lessons of care and responsibility that the decision-makers might now like to emulate.

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