Our school is named after George Tomlinson, Labour Minister for Education 1947-1951. 

After leaving school,  aged 12, to become a cotton mill worker, George became intent on finding a way to ‘get out’ of factory life. During his teens, he attended night school classes on textiles.  He studied each night for years. Getting up at 1.30am, he read through the night until heading to the mill at 5.30am, where he would work a full shift, go home, eat dinner, sleep, and then start again

As an adult he became very interested in helping his fellow workers through his trade union work and in 1937 he became a Labour Member of Parliament.

In 1947 he was promoted to the position of Education Minister and this was the role he had always wanted because he had lost out on his own school experience and learning as a child. As Education Minister he worked on re building school after World War 2 and the recruitment of thousands of new teachers. He also campaigned tirelessly to raise the age of when children are allowed to leave school.