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Six of the best - back row (left to right): Barry Sutton, Raymond Starkie, Nigel Chew and Graham Hill. Front row: Paul Schofield and Graham Proctor.
With Burnley Grammar School looking doomed under comprehensive plans, the school is still notching up successes. This year the school provides six of the town's eight boys and girls who have gained entry to Oxford or Cambridge universities. With five boys bound for Oxford and one for Cambridge, the Grammar School can point to 58 similar successes over the past 10 years. And this is from a school with only 460 pupils. Mr N. B. Stokes, the headmaster, is justifiably proud of this record and doubts whether similar results will be obtained under a comprehensive scheme.

Range
He points out that the successful students come from all walks of life. "They are not just the sons of professional people. We've had parents from all sorts of jobs and from every class of society." he said. "Every lad in the town has a fair chance of coming to the school." Said Mr Stokes, who believes that much of the pressure to dispense with grammar schools is rooted in jealousy. "To hold back some children because they are brighter than others is like making the best athlete wear a ball and chain when he races."

'Losers'
With the accumulation of intelligent boys at the school, Mr Stokes is able to run an "express" stream, the alpha class, who take their O and A-Levels a year earlier than other pupils. He believes that if these students were distributed throughout several schools, they and the country would be the losers. "We had one boy who got nine O-Levels last year. If he had been forced to wait another year I think his performance might have been affected because he was doing work below his capabilities." The "express" system would seem to be vindicated as all six "Oxbridge" successes came from the alpha class.
Raymond Starkie, one of the six, has no doubts on the subject: "With jumping a year I can work until I go to Oxford, earn some money to add to my grant when I get there, and still be no older than most of the boys who go to university." he remarked. Raymond, a chess enthusiast, who lives at 255 Coal Clough Lane, is to study English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Modern history at Trinity College, Oxford, awaits Nigel Chew, of 388 Rossendale Road, while Barry Sutton, of 114 Todmorden Road, is to read Biology at nearby Wadham College. Graham Proctor, of 108 Cleaver Street, is to read Mathematics at St Catherine's, Oxford, while Paul Schofield, of 2 Sheridan Street, is to take the same subject at Merton College, Oxford. A keen cricketer, Paul hopes that his success in the school team will be repeated at university. The odd man out is Graham Hill, whose father, Mr G. B. Hill, is Burnley's Director of Education. Graham is going to Cambridge, where he will study Engineering at Gonville and Caius.