School's urgent cash plea

LEWES Priory School could miss out on 600,000 of special Government funding ... for the sake of 7,000!

And there are only days left in which to find the money.

For any bid for specialist arts college status to be eligible, the school has to raise 50,000 in sponsorship.

Priory has about 43,000 in the kitty, with only days to go before the deadline is reached.

Making a last-ditch attempt to find the cash, head teacher Martyn Ofield said: We are so near.

To miss this opportunity to bring 600,000 of Government money into the school and to risk restricting the opportunities we can offer our students in the future because we can t raise the final 7 000 would be a tragedy.

We are appealing to all our parents, the parents of children at our partner schools, and the parents of children hoping to come to Priory School in the future, to dig into their pockets and give generously in the next week.

We are also appealing to any local businesses or organisations that think they may be able to help to contact the school. Many people already have, and we are very grateful. What a shame if their generosity and the hard work put in by my staff comes to nothing because we can t raise that last 7,000.

Cheque

If you would like to support the school, send your cheque to Friends of Priory School, Mountfield Road, Lewes BN7 2XD. All donations, however small, are welcome.

Said deputy head teacher Siobhan Denning, who organised the cash bid: It is a strong submission.

The Government demands that four main areas are addressed: raising standards in music, dance and drama, increasing the range of opportunities in the arts, sharing good practice, resources and facilities with partner schools, and providing increased opportunities for community involvement in the arts.

We are already a very good school, and the arts were identified as an area of strength in our recent Ofsted inspection.

We have more than 80 per cent of our students already studying an arts subject at examination level, and their results are always among the highest, not only in the county, but in the country.

Talented

We hope to be introducing some new courses, including music technology and expressive arts GCSE.

We will also be offering our talented and gifted students the chance to do an Arts GCSE in one year, allowing them to then go on to an AS-Level in their Year 11.

Our partner schools include Pells, St Pancras and Rodmell primary schools and St Anne s Special School.

Small schools like these really can t afford to give their students the range of opportunities the larger schools can.

We will be extending this outreach as a specialist school to include Tideway in Newhaven.

l A separate element in the bid is the building of a Performing Arts Centre for which the Government would provide a further 100,000.

It will be on the school site, but will be for use by the local community as well.