Sponsor a seat at Backwell School

STAFF at Backwell School are appealing for former students and businesses to sponsor a seat in their new lecture theatre.

The school was due to get �2.7million for a new building, but due to Government funding cuts it will now only be getting �2.2million.

Staff are now hoping to raise an extra �60,000 through fund-raising activities and sponsorship.

Headteacher Julian Baldwin said: “The local authority has suffered lots of cuts in funding over the past six months and the money it had available for this building was cut by half a million pounds.

“We worked with the designers and local authority to change the design so it would meet the new budget.

“One of the things the funding will no longer be able to cover is the retractable seating in the lecture theatre.

“We think that’s an important part of the new building so we are going to fund-raise and search for sponsorship.

“It is not the local authority’s fault. It has been really supportive, it’s just one of the facts of the current situation.

“We are delighted in the face of the cuts that we are actually getting the new building.”

Mr Baldwin added that the new building, which will open in September, can function without seats, but the school is hoping to be able to buy them in time.

Former pupils and businesses are now being given the chance to buy their own seats and have their names added to them.

The new building will include a new social and working area for sixth form students, a dance studio, a lecture and performance theatre with retractable seating for 230 people and extra classrooms on the first floor for its diploma courses. The building will replace some huts which have been used as classrooms by the school.

Anyone interested in donating money to the cause or sponsoring a seat can call the school on 01275 463371.