| Tipping chipped potatoes into the fryer at the fish and chip shop he runs with his dad, Stephen Poyser says he has mixed feelings about the closure of Ridings high school, which was branded the worst in the country while he was a pupil there. "For years there has been talk about how bad it is but people who went through there have done OK - I have run this place with my dad since I left and plenty more have got jobs." Calderdale council announced this week that the school, which serves the Ovenden area north of Halifax, is to close 11 years after staff threatened to go on strike unless 60 "unteachable" pupils were excluded. Craig Whittaker, the council member with responsibility for children and young people, told a council meeting on Monday night that the decision had not been taken lightly: "The Ridings is currently only half full and parents have been voting with their feet by sending their children to other schools across Calderdale." The Ridings school competes for pupils with two faith schools - one Church of England and one Roman Catholic - and a selective grammar school.
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