LETTER TO THE EDITOR

It looks like Tameside councils most vociferous critic and prolific writer of letters to the Editors, has been admonished by one of Tameside’s highest paid council officials! On a package more ludicrous than the Prime Minister, Steven Pleasant has taken time off from ‘running the council’ to bandy words with Roger Bamford a resident of Hollingworth, who he believes has ‘damned the efforts and achievements of Tameside’s pupils’.

Now reading Mr Bamford’s letter, published in last week's Tameside Reporter, I couldn’t find a whiff of criticism damning anybody but Tameside council who according to Ofsted, have reported that the boroughs secondary schools had slipped to 145^th out of 150 education councils. (Source: Ofsted)

Mr Pleasant has responded by saying that Tameside primary schools performed better than the national average and better than most other areas in Greater Manchester!

But having now read the report, it clearly states that, in some local authority areas, pupils have a less than 50% chance of going to a good primary school’ and unfortunately, Tameside is languishing 15 places from the bottom of this table too. Not only that, but the report states that Tameside is the worst performing education authority with the Greater Manchester region. (Source: Ofsted)

No wonder the Chief Executive is hiding his embarrassment behind smoke and mirrors!