Patricia Hewitt MP met with pupils at a local school last Friday, to discuss how the Government can help improve the state of their playground and toilets.

Pupils at Shaftesbury Junior School gave a presentation to Patricia, explaining which parts of the school needs improving. One pupil said "We need to make the toilets much better and make them nice by decorating them better and making sure there's not just cold water in the taps." Another pupil said "I hope Ms Hewitt realised that we need help to make the playgound better because a lot of the benches are chipped and the paint is peeling."

The 122-year-old school has changed little since it was first built. Headteacher, Mr Karl Stewart said that money needs to be invested to bring the school into the 21st century. However, following a recent Ofsted inspection, the staff are making fantastic progress in improving the environment of the school, including the opening of a state-of-the-art computer room and brightly coloured walls.

Mr Peter Hobson, the Chair of Governors said, "The school building may be old but the staff are fantastically forward-looking.  We have a wonderful mix of hard-working people here.  We were very excited to show Ms Hewitt what we’ve done and what we still need to do."

Patricia praised the staff for their hard work and told the children "The toilets are awful. The boys' toilets especially. I'm going to write to the lead councillor for children and young people, Vi Dempster. Shaftesbury is 122-years-old, too old for a school, and we need a lot of money to modernise it. Not just the playground and the toilets but the classrooms as well.

"Everyone should be able to work and play in a much nicer place. We need people to know that Shaftesbury needs some money. It's not going to happen overnight but we do need it."

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