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Halton Moor: School calls for 'lack of support' inquiry
Governors at a Halton Moor primary school are calling for an inquiry into the handling of a catalogue of complaints they have raised with education bosses.
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The board of governors at Meadowfield Primary School claim they have been "stone-walled" by Education Leeds – the organisation responsible for providing support services to the school.
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Mike Shaw, Meadowfield's chair of governors, has now asked the council's Children's Service Scrutiny Board – a watchdog body – to carry out an inquiry into how school complaints are dealt with.
Problems raised by the school since it opened include:
* Planting and highway safety issues;
* Failure to provide adequate security measures to some part of the building;
* Insufficient parking spaces;
* Playing fields not fit to use.
Mr Shaw told the board some of the problems had been dealt with but only after the school had forced the issue.
He said: "We are looking at a failure of process that should be there
to safeguard schools when things go wrong.
"In all organisations things will go wrong – it's a question of how they are dealt with.
"Our experience has been unhappy but there's been no effective mechanism of dealing with our complaints. I have been stone-walled long enough and the only place to come is here.
"It is treated to keep governors on board when they are treated as we have been.
"I almost had a mass resignation because of the disillusionment people felt over how they were being treated."
Councillor Jim McKenna (Lab, Armley) said: "It seems there could be a problem with the procedures for school taking complaints to the top.
"We should ask Education Leeds to report on the procedures for schools to progress complaints. We don't want governors to feel they are being ignored."
The scrutiny board agreed to set up a working group that will consider all the evidence provided by Mr Shaw. The board will then decide whether or not to conduct a full inquiry.
A spokesman for Education Leeds told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "Education Leeds is aware of these issues and has been working with the school to address them for some time. We hope that with the assistance of the Scrutiny Board they can be fully and finally resolved."
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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