Last litter for long serving Councillor

Team St Angela's shows pride in their school by cleaning up before the Inspectors arrive.

Alex Glass, who has been the Labour Party representative in Greater Pollok for 13 years, but is not standing again in the local government election this week, told this website: ‘I had the pleasure of joining some parents, children and teachers at St Angela’s RC Primary School in Darnley on Friday 27 April, to perform one of my very last duties as a councillor – a litter pick-up.’

In the near future, the school will receive an important visit from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education(HMIE). To ensure that the inspection team gets the best impression of the school, everyone, including outgoing Councillor Glass, was in the grounds picking up bags and bags of litter.  Head Teacher, Brendan Duffy said: ‘The School’s Council has been fighting hard over the past few years to show the pride they have in St Angela’s by encouraging other parents to join the clean-up of the school grounds. We have also involved the children. The long term message appears to be getting through to them about keeping the school and the wider community clean by putting litter in the bin and not dropping it in the school grounds or on the street.’

The clean-up was organised by Tom Buik, Chair of the School’s Council who said: ‘We have a good community spirit in the school now. We want the inspectors from HMIE to see the pride we take in St Angela’s  by noticing how tidy the school grounds are as they arrive to carry out their inspection.’

The school has not been without its problems as Councillor Glass knows. He said: ‘Recently, teachers were having to place buckets under the constant drips of water coming from the roof. Fortunately, I was able to draw attention to the urgent nature of the repairs and work was completed relatively quickly.’

St Angela’s has been in the news over the past couple of years due to the change in the catchment area for St Ninian’s which is outside Glasgow but has had a long standing arrangement to take children from the Darnley area.

Recently, too, the school expanded to accommodate the growing number of children wishing to attend St Angela’s. Two additional classrooms are now located in portacabins in the playground. Commented Tom: ‘Hopefully the inspection will go well for everyone at St Angela’s. With this level of support from parents, children and teachers as well as our local councillor, it looks like the school is taking on all the challenges that it faces by getting everyone involved.’