Levenshulme Councillor and governor at Levenshulme Girls School Cllr Keith Whitmore has welcomed a U-turn by Labour that will allow both Levenshulme and Burnage High to stay single sex schools. Labour had originally wanted to have a co-ed school on the Burnage site and two single sex schools on the Levenshulme site.
In a secret report to Labour Councillors last week, Cllr Shelia Newman admitted that due to opposition from both sets of governors and head teachers, further consultation would "get a worse result than the previous divided result" and that she had "reluctantly agreed to allow the rebuilding of two single sex schools on the current sites"
Cllr Whitmore said:
"This is a victory for the local school community. I am glad that the Headteachers, governors and parents have forced the Labour council to see sense at last. This is the best educational result for the children of Levenshulme and Burnage."
Lib Dem Leader Cllr Simon Ashley struck a note of caution:
"You can tell that Cllr Newman has done this reluctantly, and she tells Labour Councillors that "Both schools will be rebuilt so that they can be changed to co-ed in the future", so we need to be on our guard to make sure that Labour don't come back to these schools in the future."
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