Sign up in support of our schools

Readers are today urged to back calls for desperately needed investment in Newark’s secondary schools.

Parents campaigning for urgent improvements want people to sign an online petition calling on the Government to find the money to pay for the work.

The petition, supported by the Advertiser, covers the Grove, Orchard and Magnus schools, which need rebuilding or extensive repairs.

All were due to receive a share of the multi-million pound Building Schools for the Future programme, which was scrapped by the Government in July.

A Grove parent, Mr Don Melrose, of Main Street, Coddington, said Newark was being bypassed for investment and called on townsfolk to act.

“We will make a difference if we all vote. We will get what we are given if we don’t,” he said.

Mr Melrose said the state of education in the Newark area affected everyone, not just pupils and parents.

“The knock-on effect is just enormous,” he said.

Mr Melrose said anyone able to sign their name could back the petition and hoped it would capture the imagination of school pupils in the area.

“The Government looks at total numbers [of a petition] and also speed. If we can get 5,000 signatures in a fortnight that would send a very strong message to the Government,” he said.

A website — www.sos-newark.btck.co.uk — has been set up with a link to the petition, which will be sent directly to the Government once complete.

There is also a link from this story on the Advertiser website.

A Facebook page, SOS Newark — Support Our Schools — has been created to promote the campaign.Mr Melrose said they planned to send 6,500 leaflets about the petition to every child with a link to the three schools.

As well as pupils at the affected schools, it will also include their feeder primary schools. The leaflets will be distributed via each school.

Campaign posters designed and donated by the Advertiser will be on display around the town.

The campaign group, made up of parents, pupils, families and community members, hopes as many as 20,000 people could eventually sign the petition.

It is likely to stay open until mid-November.

An initial batch of signatures may be sent in time for the results of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review next month.

A review is under way at the Department for Education of how school building projects are carried out in the future, which is expected to report by the end of the year.

The campaign group will have a stall in Newark Market Place from 10am to 3pm on Saturday and a week on Saturday.

People wishing to support the campaign in any way can visit the stall on either day.

The MP for Newark, Mr Patrick Mercer, said the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, had finally given an assurance that there would be a ministerial visit to Newark.

Mr Mercer said he had to confront Mr Gove in the corridors of Whitehall after he failed to answer a written request to visit the constituency.

Mr Gove will not visit himself but will be represented by Lord Hill, the parliamentary under secretary of state for schools.

The date for the visit has not been set but it is expected before Christmas.

Mr Mercer said the assurance Mr Gove gave was for the minister to visit all three affected schools.

“This is simply the most important issue in Newark. Education affects everything and everyone,” said Mr Mercer.