THE director of an aid agency with an annual turnover of £20million was the guest speaker at a school's celebration night.

But the school's head teacher criticised the Government for stripping post-16 pupils of travel subsidy to colleges of higher education.

Julian Filochowski, director of the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD), was guest of honour at the annual presentation night of St Augustine's RC High School, Billington. The organisation runs more than 1,000 development programmes in 75 countries across the world.

Head teacher Anthony McNamara said CAFOD had commissioned Peter Rose, the school's head of music, to compose a musical celebrating the new millennium.

"All of the pupils have in one way or another contributed to to the work of CAFOD, which is synonymous in our minds with working for justice and peace. It reminds us that the gospel call to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless can be put into practice on a massive scale."

He praised the pupils for "magnificent academic results" that were away above the national average.

"The vast majority of pupils did better than we projected or expected themselves. Every one of them achieved at least five GCSEs, which was way above the county or national average.

"I know I am speaking for parents and pupils in paying tribute to our teaching staff at St Augustine's. I have never worked at a school where there were so many lunchtime and after-school activities. Teaching is a hard, demanding and highly accountable profession.

"I also want to thank parents for supporting the ethos of the school so strongly. The importance we attach to good study habits and involvement in extra-curricular activities are reinforced at home. We couldn't run so many activities after school and at weekends if we were unable to count on parental help in providing transport and other forms of assistance," he said.

But he criticised the Government for stripping school leavers of subsidised travel to colleges of higher education. "Despite the promises of politicians to start funding education properly and move towards a level playing field of resourcing, we have yet to see any improvements. They could start by recognising that recent cuts to travel subsidies for post-16 pupils are closing down rather than creating opportunities for young people to access appropriate college courses," he said.

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