A LOOK at one of the county's local schools.

HISTORY LESSON: Witton Park High School is a mixed 11-16 comprehensive school maintained by the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen. It was formed in September 1968 by the amalgamation of the Blackburn Grammar School for Girls and Witton Park School. The buildings that housed these schools now comprise our South Wing and North Wings respectively. The accommodation is modern having recently received a £500,000 facelift and has the advantage of being set in the surrounding beauty of Witton Country Park.

OUR MOTTO: To "achievement for all". We aim to provide a caring and disciplined environment in which all children can succeed to the best of their ability, both socially and academically. In 198 we were in the top 25 most improved schools nationally for our students' performance over the previous four years in the GCSE examinations. This momentum has been maintained and in 2001 we received a school achievement award for excellence. Our Ofsted inspection of January 2002 reported that: "The school's clear aims are successfully translated into action: Achievement for All is a reality."

OUR PUPILS: We are a mixed race school of approximately 1,050 pupils. We take children from across the borough and have over 30 feeder schools. We take great pride in the quality of care we provide for our pupils. Ofsted commented on our warm sense of community. We are regularly over subscribed and the pressure on places is high.

OUR PARENTS: We work hard to develop and maintain good links with all our parents who we encourage to take an active role in the life of the school and education of their children. Reports on children's progress go out to parents twice a year, (soon to be expanded to three times a year) we have two parent information evenings for each year group and include parents in our family literacy and mentoring programmes. We also run a successful "parents as educators" scheme which involves parents working alongside teachers in the classroom to gain a nationally recognised qualification. In addition there are a number of parents on our staff.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS: The school is delighted to have been chosen as a host site for one of the two city learning centres that are to be built in the borough. These centres are a shared community resource and will provide state of the art Information Technology facilities. The building will be ready for full community use by September 2003.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A £100,000 WINDFALL? Although we have two well-equipped gymnasiums and extensive school playing fields we would like a large indoor sports area. While £100,000 would not cover the full cost it would represent a substantial deposit which a kindly local benefactor would surely add to!