Trust School

GoalCo and Trust

GoalCo is unique to Golborne High School. It is an innovative partnership between Golborne High School, and, Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust (WLCT), The Co-operative College, UCLAN and Wigan & Leigh College. It is an Educational co-operative formed in 2010. We raise awareness of the Trust through assemblies and work through school and with our other Trust partners.

Over the years our partnership has gone from strength to strength with significant interest from outside organisations. A business strategy with objectives is updated annually and partners contribute time or provide learning activities. 

We have Trust meetings each half term and the pupils meet fortnightly. We follow cooperative values and we have a chair, vice chair and other roles within the group. We have raised a significant amount of money over the years, for example through a Fashion event which raised £700 and a bag pack which raised £660. Our Spanish exchange school are frequent visitors and are interested in our Trust work. The school based in Malaga has a kitchen garden so we like to exchange ideas about our projects. 

Our Wetlands

There are many successes to date but our most ambitious project is the creation of Wetlands on a derelict playing area.

Through engaging with community contacts, a local construction company, Murphy’s, has landscaped the area. Expertise has also been provided by WLCT on the design of the site. Students from Wigan & Leigh College have built fencing and a hide. In order to put some trees on our wetland we ordered some hedges from the Woodland Trust and some Alder trees were also donated by the Three Sisters.

Golborne Village Committee is actively involved with the Wetlands, once established, the Wetlands will be utilised for the delivery of learning activities that will benefit the lives and change attitudes of many local people. This is an outstanding example of how young people can learn co-operatively and we believe this project will be recognised, valued and provide inspiration for other partnerships. The official opening was combined with a Family Fun Day and enabled the community to visit and enjoy the beautiful landscaped Wetlands area.

Trust Partnership with UCLAN

As part of the Trust, we have continued to work with UCLAN and the Junior University.

UCLAN has provided an insight into university life and activities free of charge for children who perhaps may not have considered university in the past. 

GoalCo

GoalCo is the pupils’ arm of the Trust who play a vital role in our eco and democracy agenda.

The pupils meet regularly and have represented the Trust at National Co-operative Conferences. They regularly accompany primary pupils and community groups around the Wetlands and liaise with our visiting schools from China and Spain. They are actively involved with Wigan LA and participate in activities such as the Mayor for a Day competition. Currently, GoalCo are working on a recycling project in school which will significantly impact our eco agenda.