School awards...

Congratulations are in order for Moreton Hall’s arts award nomination.

This must have taken hard work and serious commitment. While I’m aware the award in question was one specific to independent schools, this did raise the issue for me of the position of the arts in private schools / fee-paying schools versus in state schools.

Arts funding in state schools has been continuously and brutally slashed during recent years - a potential cause of the dearth of students taking arts GCSEs and A-Levels - which has the most significant impact on schools dependent on government and local authority funding (i.e, state schools.)

Fee paying schools, deriving their incomes from other sources, do not suffer the same funding shortage in this area. If local state primary and secondary schools such as Woodside, Holy Trinity, Lakelands, The Marches, and Rhyn Park had access to the same amount of funding as their fee-paying equivalents Bellan House, Oswestry School and Moreton Hall (to name but a few), I am confident they would enjoy the same levels of success in local arts and music competitions, and have the same success in arts scholarships and further education.

Of course, I don’t wish to undermine or deride the achievements of individual pupils, departments and schools who doubtless work incredibly hard towards them, rather I want to highlight the lack of a level playing field and the importance of arts funding for all.

Erin Hudson,

Llanforda Rise