SCHOOL bosses at Radcliffe High have been accused of insulting their contemporaries by promoting themselves.

Tory councillor Roy Walker has demanded that an advert for the school in the borough's official street plan should be withdrawn.

The advert says that Radcliffe High is a "Grade 1 school in the top handful of schools in the country".

It adds: "Any Radcliffe child in the catchment area that does not attend Radcliffe High School for their secondary education is being seriously disadvantaged."

But Coun Walker said that this statement was not in an official Ofsted publication, but was based on an "off-the-cuff" remark made by an inspector six years ago.

"It's insulting to independent, faith and other state schools in this borough," he said. "There are adverts for other schools in this publication which don't do that." However, Coun Steve Perkins, chairman of lifelong learning, said it was up to the school's governors to decide what their advertising consisted of. He said Coun Walker would accuse Labour of being "Stalinist" censors if they attempted to change the wording.

Coun Perkins said that the governors had drawn from successful inspection reports of 1995 and 2000 for the advert, and comments made by the registered inspector during verbal feedback.

He said the council was entitled to voice its support for Bury schools generally. Its information handbook, given to those whose children will transfer to high school in 2001, says that the authority is justly proud of all its high schools, and recommends that parents visit their local high school to see what is available.

The official report for Radcliffe High actually states: "Radcliffe seeks to be a community school as a principal part of its mission, and this is to a large extent achieved. Parents are very proud of the school and they are right to be so. It's a very good school to have a pupil in."