Boy: let my school keep its funding

29 July 2010

A SCHOOLBOY is demanding the Government rethink its decision to pull the plug on funding for his Romford school.

James Doherty, 14, said he was devastated when he learned last week that Royal Liberty School in Upper Brentwood Road, would lose its share of the £42m Building Schools for the Future cash in Havering, following education cuts.

The year nine pupil was in the original envoy sent to convince officials to grant the school some much need cash from the previous Labour Government's multi-billion pound national regeneration programme.

It is believed the boys' specialist science college was due to receive £12m for improvements.

James has been scrambling to get a 1,000-signature petition and protest letter put together and sent to Romford MP Andrew Rosindell, before the end of term today (Friday).

He said: "I was devastated that all the hard work we had done was snatched away. Although I won't benefit from the changes as I will be moving on as the project begins to take hold, I wanted the school and community to feel the long-term benefits of the project."

Headteacher Julia Deery said staff and governors would also be writing to Mr Rosindell in the hope of forcing a reversal of the decision.

She said: "I am very proud of James because he was personally very angry and disappointed that the money was taken away without any real explanation. It's one thing to get angry, but quite another to do something about it in an active and constructive way."

Around 20 students worked for six months to put together a colour brochure on students' ideas for the new school and just a week before the cuts were announced architects had toured the site in preparation for drafting designs.

Planned improvements included expanded classrooms, a sports hall, library and canteen, plus a new gym, which would have been open to the public.

"We had a group of students who worked very hard on what the school would look like," said Ms Deery, "and it would have been something of benefit to the community as well as students.

"The school has not had any new building work in 40 years. We had huge plans and it's a real bitter blow for everybody.