|
Poundswick Grammar School or PGS was a mainstream secondary school in the Poundswick Corridor of "Wythenshawe" and at its peak had over 500 pupils. ==History== Whilst being built from 1954, with two other nearby schools, the Labour-dominated Manchester Education Committee had cold feet about the grammar school, technical school and secondary modern plan in the area, and nominally wanted them to be three comprehensive schools - few comprehensive schools existed in the UK at that time. The other two new secondary were West Wythenshawe Comprehensive School and Yew Tree Secondary Modern School (based on an existing building). Parents of 119 out of 120 children who had been selected for the grammar school complained to the council about the proposed scheme to have comprehensive schools instead. The council had a plan for 'grammar school type' courses to be taught instead at the comprehensives, but the parents said it was 'wishful thinking' that a grammar school education was possible at the comprehensives. The council claimed that because Wythenshawe had elected Labour councillors at recent elections meant that local people did not want a grammar school system. The Ministry of Education wrote to the council in July 1955 to say it was unwise to go ahead with the comprehensive plan until it had been approved, but the council took little notice. In September 1955, four days before the school was due to open, the Minister of Education, Sir David Eccles, intervened to stop the comprehensive plan. Instead he approved the original plan of the Poundswick Grammar School for 750 children, and a secondary modern school at Oldwood (which the council wanted to combine into a comprehensive on two sites), and two single sex technical schools at West Wythenshawe (which the council wanted to combine into a single comprehensive). The Minister said he would approve comprehensive plans 'as an experiment where favourable conditions exist'. As would be found later, favourable conditions did not exist in Wythenshawe. The Minister thought the council's plans were too rudimentary, uneconomic, not thought-through (especially two sites for a school being half a mile apart) and a little rushed and ill-conceived. The council was resolute in opening the school as a two-site comprehensive in September 1955, claiming it was just too late for the plans to be reversed. Eveline Hill was the local Conservative MP. On 17 October 1955, the council acknowledged it could not carry on with the comprehensive proposal. The West Wythenshawe Secondary Technical School for Girls and the West Wythenshawe Secondary Technical School for Boys were approved at the same time. It was opened in August 1956 by Manchester Education Committee, being Manchester's first co-educational grammar school, at a cost of £249,000. It was officially opened on 26 June 1957. The grammar school even had its own orchestra, which played at the 1957 opening ceremony. A sculpture, by Austin Wright, was commissioned for the school which cost £2,500. Mitzi Cunliffe, of Didsbury, made a sculpture for the West Wythenshawe technical schools. The school was situated close to what would become junction 4 of the M56, between Newall Green and Wythenshawe Centre. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Poundswick Grammar School」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|