My old school to be rebuilt

It never ceases to amaze me how often Labour attack the leadership of the Conservatives and Lib Dems for having too many with public school educated backgrounds. And too often these Labour class warriors themselves enjoyed the benefits of public school education. People such as Tristam Hunt and Chris Bryant have rather wilted under the media spotlight recently when attacking others for their public school education whilst, ahem, having their own public school education highlighted by the media for all to see.

Personally, I don't give a damn what school you went to. After all, it is not your decision but rather that of the parents or the local educational system. But Labour's very own posh boys aren't going to let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Anyway, the point of this post is not Labour toffs pretending to be socialists, rather it's about my old school. Sadly for Labour they can't paint me as a public school boy. I went to my local comprehensive, Whickham School, back in the 70s and early 80s. The school is a very successful one. It's one of the reasons people want to move to the Whickham area. The buildings however are showing their age. The school was built for 400 pupils in 1960 and had grown to more than 4 times that number when I was there. Over the decades, more buildings mushroomed over the site. As they age, so the maintenance problems multiply. The school needed rebuilding.

And that is now set to happen. The school is one of 277 to go in the next wave of the Priority School Building programme announced last week by Nick Clegg. Excellent news.

Photo above - Cllr Chris Ord, me and Kevin McClurey outside Whickham School, giving the news of the rebuild the thumbs up.