JSTATE OF THE ARTS AT ST JOHN BOSCO

ST JOHN Bosco School in Liverpool has been awarded specialist arts college status, enabling it to concentrate on the performance arts sector of its teaching.

The announcement by the DfES means the Croxteth School will concentrate on dance, music and art from the start of the next academic year, in September 2004.

The school will receive funding to transform its hall into a multi-purpose state of the art performance area with specialist lighting and mirrored walls, which will enable it to be used as a dance studio. 

Extra resources will be provided to enable it to bring in specialist staff who can work with pupils to deliver arts related projects. 

And new 'A' levels and GCSE's in arts related subjects will also be introduced into the curriculum. 

St John Bosco headteacher Anne Pontifex said:- "Becoming an Arts College will make a fantastic difference to our students and the local community. Every pupil will be able to develop their talents through dance, music and art. We are certain this will motivate our students to even greater standards of success."

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Safety First for Pupils

PUPILS from St Malachy's School, Dingle, launched a Road Safety Club yesterday to emphasise a special road safety day. 

The club, run by two learning support assistants at the school, Brenda Henaghan and Philomena Benger, recently completed a course run by the City Council's Road Safety Unit

The ten week course gave information on road safety issues, how to run a club and how to plan events. 

At the Road Safety Day there will workshops for each year group including designing pedestrian crossings, general road traffic and its utilities. 

Each month they will be concentrating on a different road safety theme or issue such as in-car safety, different types of pedestrian crossings and cycle safety.

Pat Speed, headteacher at St Malachy's said:- "We are very conscious of some of the traffic issues in the area around the school and feel it is important that that the children learn about road safety from when they are very young.  

We have an eye to the future as we understand that at some time Park Street, the road by the school, will be opened to traffic so the new club will be even more important in helping the children be aware of road safety."