Young people use march to make their views known
YOUNG people took to the streets yesterday to get their voices heard.
Parents, teachers and politicians have largely dominated the secondary school debate so far. But pupils were keen to have their say yesterday.
Many had made their own placards, with one little girl on an adult’s shoulders waving a sign emblazoned with ‘Matilda says please get it right for all children’.
Les Beaucamps pupil Lexie Osborne, 11, was particularly concerned about transport to the new schools.
Her current school bus is already always late and that is with the school having to cope with just five bus services. This could triple under the proposals.
‘My sister [nine-year-old Deanna] will be going to Beaucamps soon and if this goes through now, she will be in the middle of it,’ she said.
‘But it will also affect me, as I will be in my GCSEs. We already have trouble in the canteen, with pupils having to sit on the floor and if they double pupils then obviously it will be a nightmare.’
She said the school currently benefited from having outside space, with boys using the Astroturf games area and girls preferring to use the field or being inside.
But outdoor games spaces would be lost under the expansion proposals, as the space would be needed for classrooms.
‘There’s just not enough room,’ she said.
Her elder sister Krista, 21, agreed.
‘It will ruin the sense of the community, if they are split into shifts,’ she said.
Nine-year-old Rory Le Poidevin is currently in primary school and has just 17 pupils in his class.
‘I don’t like crowds and the new school may be quite crowded,’ he said.
One of the messages from parents on the march was that a three secondary school model was preferred over a two-school model.
