A BLACKBURN headmaster was calling on parents to fight controversial moves to change secondary schools set-ups back in 1979.

Keith Walmsley of Pleckgate High School was speaking at their speech night and what worried him most along with the other non-RC secondary schools in Blackburn and Darwen was that they would lose their sixth forms.

A Lancashire Education Authority working party was investigating the town’s sixth-form arrangements.

Mr Walmsley said that Pleckgate’s sixth form had an enviable record and went on to underline its value to the school and community.

He added the school nearly had four times as many university graduates among the teaching staff as it had 10 years ago and doubted it would have been possible without sixth form.

He described the small sixth form as a ‘haven of stability and quality’.