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Parents go it alone
A group of parents who lost their battle for a new secondary school in their neighbourhood have come up with an ambitious solution – to open their own. Debbie Leigh finds out more
WHEN Kirklees Council announced plans to build a new high school at Howden Clough rather than Birkenshaw, a group of angry parents launched a determined campaign against them.
They said the school should be located near the centre of the community – in line with Government guidance, and argued building it on the other site, further away, would lead to traffic problems morning and night.
Even when the proposals got the go-ahead they refused to accept defeat.
They have formed the BBG Parents' Alliance to take on the fight for a new secondary school in the Birkenshaw area – for Birkenshaw, Birstall, Gomersal and East Bierley.
Parents from all four areas, who are seriously committed to the fight, are now taking the radical, ambitious step of opening their own school – at the heart of their community.
The Alliance has a core committee of around 10 parents but has the backing of the wider community, attracting more than 1,200 supporters to take part in its protest marches.
Committee member and dad-of-two Robert Thornton said: "We are not fighting the council any more. That campaign is over. This is parent power."
He added: "It's not just about my children, it's about the community."
The group wants to set up a state school, which would operate outside the existing system administered by the Local Education Authority.
Although the idea of parents opening schools is already technically possible in the UK, in reality it has proved virtually impossible for those that have tried.
But if the Conservatives win power in the General Election they have vowed to broaden school supply by allowing parents to go down that route – like the free school system in Sweden.
They will be able to apply to the Government to run schools facing closure and establish new schools in areas neglected by their local authority.
The Alliance has already held top-level talks with Shadow Secretary of State for Children and Families, Michael Gove, attended seminars in London and will be meeting potential school partners and sponsors in the next few weeks.
It is in the very earliest stages but there are hopes the Birkenshaw venture could become a flagship project.
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It is working with various bodies to develop plans and apply to central government for direct funding.
Mr Thornton said: "They are offering to work with us.
"We have generated a lot of interest from businesses that specialise in this."
Alliance spokesperson and mum-of-three Lesley Surman said: "We have accepted that Kirklees Council has chosen to ignore the needs of our community, but we will not give up on the needs of our children.
"We now are working to establish a strong group which will be able run our new school.
"We intend to establish a school which will be open to all children in Birkenshaw, Gomersal and East Bierley and will also offer real choice to children in Birstall.
"Our plans will deliver an inclusive school committed to delivering outstanding education.
"We are uncompromising on the level of ambition for all of our children, for our school and for our community."
To most people the idea of parents opening their own school sounds seriously overwhelming.
Lesley said: "We are very excited but also apprehensive because we are not naive to the task ahead."
We were invited to Westminster in October and as a result we have had a lot of offers of support.
"We believe we can make it work.
"We are only parents, so we've got to take advice from educational people.
"But we are quite clear and focused on what we want from our school."
To contact the BBG Parent's Alliance email: bbghighschool@yahoo.co.uk.
The case FOR parent-run classes
PARENTS deserve alternatives to what's currently on offer – that's the view of the New Schools Network, launched around a month ago to help create new, independent state schools.
Rachel Wolf, head of the charity, said it aimed to reduce inequality.
She said many parents were unable to get their child into a good, local school and for those who couldn't afford to move into the right catchment areas, their options were limited.
"There's a massive gap between rich and poor at the moment.
"It's about providing parents with alternatives."
She said there was a growing cross-party consensus that organisations, including groups of parents, should be allowed to set up state schools outside the existing system administered by Local Education Authorities – as already happens in the US and Sweden.
The Conservatives also want to encourage groups of classroom teachers to set up their own state-funded schools.
Miss Wolf said capital funding would come from central Government and revenue funding would "follow the pupil" – as is currently the case.
The former education adviser for the Conservative Party said the schools would be exempt from the National Curriculum.
They would have greater freedoms over admissions and the curriculum but would still have to meet certain educational targets.
Those setting up the schools would have to demonstrate a comprehensive business plan and provide full descriptions of the school's ethos and curriculum, among other criteria.
Miss Wolf said: "The Kirklees parents have a fantastic case.
"They have got an enormous number of parents on board."
She added: "I've been incredibly impressed by the commitment and skills and enthusiasm of the Kirklees parents."
The network will support organisations in their bids to create new schools ; carry out research and advocate changes in the law to allow new schools to be set up, and act as an advocate for independent state schools – both academies and new schools.
For more information go to www.newschoolsnetwork.org
The case AGAINST going it alone
IT might sound like an interesting option but Patrick Murphy, Leeds branch secretary for the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said the running of educational establishments should be left to the experts.
He said: "The NUT would be against parents setting up schools as groups of parents.
"We think schools belong to communities in the long term and not just to a particular given set of parents.
"As a parent myself, if I set up a school for my kids at primary age – they are now secondary – I would have no particular connection with the school."
He said the NUT encouraged parental involvement and in most maintained schools, parents formed at least a third of the governing body.
But Mr Murphy said one problem of parents setting up alternative new schools was that they would be in competition with the existing schools and the least successful could be forced to close – disrupting many students' education.
"It would be a fight to the death with that school and the other school and whatever the outcome, it's quite a bloody route to get to that."
He said if such a project did get the go-ahead there was no guarantee it would attract enough pupils or succeed in its goals.
The New Schools Network's aim is to reduce inequality by helping to create new schools in areas where children are not getting the education they need.
But Mr Murphy said there was a danger schemes would be led by groups of "influential, middle-class parents who would be setting up schools to avoid their kids having to mix with riff-raff."
And he said less articulate parents, and their offspring, would be the ones who would "pay the price for this experiment".
He said research proved that the outcome for all children in a school was massively improved when there was a balance of less able and more-able students.
And he concluded that parents striking out on their own wasn't the solution to improving education.
He said: "It's not a way forward really.
"I think we would also have to look at things from the point of view, what's going to help schools as a whole?
"It's not an education policy, it's a way of addressing concerns of particular parents with particular issues."
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