A HIGH-profile Government minister on a fact-finding visit to a north Lancashire secondary school left with a good impression.

Secretary of state Ed Balls, from the Department of Children, Schools and Families, paid a visit to Carnforth High School on a whistle-stop tour of schools in the county.

Year 7 to 11 pupils on the school council had the unexpected opportunity to have a face-to-face meeting with Mr Balls.

Students told him that they felt welcomed when they started school and quickly settled down, knew how to report bullying and assured Mr Balls that they had a lot of say in the running of the school.

Mr Balls also had a private meeting with head teacher John Shannon, Morecambe and Lunesdale MP Geraldine Smith, and Helen Denton, Lancashire County Council’s executive director for children and young people.

Mr Shannon used the opportunity to tell Mr Balls about the school’s quest for a sixth form to tackle the fact students are currently forced to travel long distances across Lancashire and even into Cumbria to complete their post 16 education.

“A sixth form has to be decided locally but what we’re really encouraging areas to do is to make sure they share their expertise and that schools work with local colleges,” said Mr Balls. “This is a school with real expertise, in particular in its diploma provision and if they can make sure this expertise can carry on for 16 -18 years as well then that seems like a very wise decision.”

Mr Balls assured Lancashire schools that the expected reduction in the education budget over the next three years would not force class sizes to rise as a result.

“We have got to get the deficit down, which means in my department we are going to have to make difficult choices, but all schools will have rising budgets this year of 2.1 per cent.

“We will keep smaller class sizes and continue to deliver one-to-one tuition and we will not be reducing teaching numbers. My commitment is that there will be no cuts for Lancashire’s schools. That is a guarantee I can make on behalf of the Labour party,” said Mr Balls.

Afterwards Mr Balls praised the school for being in one of the top 50 ‘most improved’ schools last year.

Mr Shannon said: “Ed Balls was impressed by the warm and positive way in which students spoke about all aspects of school life.

“He was particularly supportive of our aspirations to include sixth form provision within the school.”