Joseph Eastham High School

Joseph Eastham was also a Councillor and Alderman who had a keen interest in educational provision and invested in local billiard halls and youth clubs.

Plain grey pullovers or cardigans, black for fifth years, gave way in the 1990s to maroon jumpers displaying an embroidered school stag.

in Devon, Lyme Regis in Dorset, Barry Island in South Wales, the Isle of Wight, water sports holidays in Spain and France, visits to Italy and Austria, trips to Disneyland Paris, and camping in the Lake District.

The school's Art Department displayed work at nearby St. Ann's Hospice and in spare window space at Walkden Tesco (and the Scan supermarket that preceded it) who in return provided bags for the distribution of the Harvest Festival foods which pupils collected each year and distributed to the elderly of Little Hulton and Walkden, many of whom were also invited into school at Christmastime for a festive dinner and to be entertained by pupils.

Each year Joseph Eastham pupils collected money for a Christmas Charity, including the British Heart Foundation, a 'Pennies for Peru' appeal in support of a school for poor children in Lima, and raising enough money to buy and train a guide dog, a golden labrador that later visited the school with its owner.

From the early 1980s, the Fifth Year Common Room provided a semi-informal base for senior pupils to assemble in the morning, socialise at break and lunchtime, and store personal possessions in lockers.

Table tennis, pool and chess were enthusiastically undertaken every lunchtime, annual trophies were awarded to tournament champions, with the conkers competition usually attracting the largest participation.

In addition to operating a conventional prefect system where older pupils supervised areas at break and lunchtimes, the school also instigated an 'Adopt a Zone' initiative in which every form looked after an area of the school building, keeping corridors tidy and safe and ensuring that plants were watered and display boards undamaged.

Leaking roofs required countless buckets and expensive maintenance, and some serious flooding not only yielded an impromptu holiday on health and safety grounds, but quite possibly fuelled calls for a new school building funded by a public-private partnership.

Joseph Eastham was greatly extended in 1997 and received a new Drama Studio, an additional Science Laboratory and a block of 10 new Maths, English and Modern Languages rooms.