Public say 'no' to school plans

Education bosses are considering closing up to three high schools because they say falling pupil numbers would leave 2,463 empty places in a decade's time.

Eight schools have been grouped into pairs on the basis of admission patterns and the communities they serve, and either one of the schools in each pair could close, with pupils going to the remaining school, or the two schools will merge.

The pairs are: Broad Oak and Derby High, Castlebrook and Philips, Parrenthorn and Prestwich, and Elton and Tottington.

More than 100 people attended a special meeting of the Bury East Area Board last week to discuss the future of Broad Oak and Derby High schools.

The meeting, held at Bury Town Hall, was part of a consultation period before a decision is made.

Officers from the council's education department told the meeting that the birth rate in the borough was falling and that there were too few children to fill the high school places currently available.

They said schools received funding based on the number of pupils they had - £2,800 per child each year - and falling pupil numbers meant they would struggle to organise their finances and curriculum.

The borough has been awarded £20 million of capital funding for rebuilding and refurbishing school buildings, and the work would start once decisions about the schools' futures had been made.

But students, staff and parents were unhappy with the explanation for the closures, and spoke of the benefits each school brought to the local community.

They pointed out that both Broad Oak and Derby had been awarded specialist status for the work they did with pupils and residents, and the loss of sports facilities at Broad Oak could be particularly detrimental.

Sue Arnold, chairman of governors at Broad Oak, appealed to the officers to keep the school open.

She said: "Our school is at the centre of the community and it has been for many years. Now that it is a sports college, we can serve the community even better. We may be a small school, but that means the children we teach come from a small area and we act as a family to them.

"No-one wants to choose between closing one of the schools or merging them. We have two good schools and we want to keep them both. Broad Oak High School wants to stay as Broad Oak and we want Derby High to have the same privilege."

Concerns were also raised about the effect a merger or closure could have on the education of pupils at the schools, especially by those who were affected by previous mergers in the area during the 1970s and 1980s.

But David Pritchard, director of learning and culture, said: "With good leadership and good schools it is possible to have a good outcome from school amalgamations. There are already successful examples of this in Bury's primary schools."

People associated with both schools also voiced concerns about possible segregation between races if they were to merge.

Fifteen-year-old Tamoor Tariq, head boy at Derby High, told the officers: "I am not saying that Derby High School is perfect, I don't think any school can say that, but it is a good school. It provides a high level of education and has a good team of teachers. We are proud that 23 per cent of our students come from Asian heritage, but if these two schools are amalgamated, I believe it would lead to segregation rather than greater integration."

Questions were also asked about whether the existing schools could continue with fewer pupils and if the capital funding could be used for education rather than new buildings, but the officers said neither option was possible.

Paul Cooke, head of planning and management in the education department, said: "There is a very real opportunity here to significantly refurbish or rebuild some of our schools so that pupils have an opportunity to use school buildings they really deserve. But we need to know which schools have a long-term future and which do not.

"It is clear there is a high level of anxiety and uncertainty about this review and we want to remove this uncertainty as soon as possible. Schools are already starting to struggle because of falling student numbers, and we want to take action by September 2007 to reverse this."

The consultation period has now ended, and a report will be discussed at the next meeting of the executive committee on January 25.

l Parents and pupils appealed to MP David Chaytor last week for support in their fight against potential closures or mergers.

Representatives from the group - Stop School Closures - spent more than an hour talking to the Bury North MP about their concerns.

The meeting took place at Mr Chaytor's Market Street office in Bury, two days ahead of the end of the consultation period.

Campaigner Mikhil Karnik, whose son attends Parrenthorn, said: "It was a good meeting and Mr Chaytor listened to our views. The consultation has closed now but for us it is just the start of the process. We want to change the mind of the council about this and we are confident we can do that."

Mr Karnik said the group had asked Mr Chaytor to investigate the council's process of consultation over the proposed closures as many people were concerned it was not long enough and inconveniently timed over the Christmas period.

He added: "I don't know if Mr Chaytor was totally supportive of what we were saying but he wasn't closed to us by any means."

The group also held a similar meeting with Bury South MP Ivan Lewis at the weekend.