PARENTS and pupils held a protest outside a school in a bid to stop the loss of more than teaching assistant jobs.

The group gathered at the gates of SS Osmund and Andrew's RC Primary School, in Breightmet to while governors met with the headteacher inside.

They waved placards and blew whistles to make their feelings know, while some used a megaphone to get their message across.

The demonstration comes after the shock announcement that 11 teaching assistants — or TAs —could be made redundant at the Falkirk Road school as budget pressure bite hard.

But parent Louise Bancroft, who has two children at the school, said teaching assistants, played a vital role in pupil's education.

She said: "They are priceless, hard working and dedicated. My kids love them. In the morning there's one that comes to greet the kids. The first thing they do is run over and give them a hug. To lose that TA would affect my kids.

She continued."It's the additional support they give. If they children are down, they can see they are down. They've got the time to get to know the kids, whereas the teachers don't, they have too much to do."

"There was a need identified for the teaching assistants and that need hasn't changed. If anything the numbers have increased in the school."

Ms Bancroft also said that funding for the school had not kept pace with inflation. But she added that, while all schools were facing similar pressures, SS Osmund and Andrews RC was the only one to be proposing to lose so many TAs.

Protesters also complain that news of the proposed redundancies was not officially communicated by the school and had spread by 'word of mouth'.

Suzi Boardman, schools convenor for the public sector trade union Unison, which represents the TAs, said there were other options open to the school.

She said: "We think there are a few things they can do to. We have to be quite sensible, we are not going to save every job because the school budget is under so much pressure. But they need to work more closely with Bolton Council. They do have schemes to support schools with their budgets and that's something the school hasn't looked into yet."

Ms Boardman said she placed the blame for the situation 'firmly on the government', adding that the schools' budget had been hit by £3.8bn in real terms cuts over the last five years and that a promised £1.6bn over the next two years would not 'even come close' to inflation.

Headteacher Julie McDonald and Julie Gallagher, chair of governors, came to speak to parents during the early part of the protest. They told parents they understood their concerns and would update them when they were able to do so.

But Derek Coleman, a retired Unison member later took to the megaphone to make the protesters' views clear.

He said: "It's the government that's making cuts, it's the council that's making cuts. The fightback starts here with the TA wokers. And the TA workers have the support of the community. We are determined that no jobs will go from this school."

He promised protesters would come back 'again and again' to protect jobs.

And he told governors: "You can't make the excuse it's down to the council. Of course it's down to the council and people should be resisting the Tory government's cuts. But the fight starts here with the community saying we don't want to lose our TAs."