Victory for parents as academy opens after six-year campaign

BBG Academy is based on the site of what was Birkenshaw Middle School and on Friday will be officially opened by Yorkshire Woman of Achievement award winner Dr Kate Granger.

It serves the communities of Birkenshaw, Birstall and Gomersal who have been fighting to keep a school on the site since 2007 in a campaign which has seen them involved in political battles at both town hall and Whitehall.

Their campaign has evolved from saving a middle school, to looking to be the first set of parents to open a free school and then most recently to turning the middle school into an academy free from local council control.

On at least three occasions it had looked like they would be unsuccessful and parents have also been thrust into the national limelight as Prime Minister David Cameron and Education Secretary Michael Gove attending one of their rallies and hailed one of the campaigners as a hero.

Chair of governors Sharon Light said it would be an emotional moment for those involved when the school is launched.

“Our school is already a great example to its pupils on what can be achieved against the odds if you just keep going.” she added.

Six years ago parents began their campaign when Birkenshaw Middle School was faced with closure as Kirklees Council planned to move from a three-tier system of first, middle and high schools to a two-tier one with primaries and secondaries.

Initially there fears were the pupils would have to go to a “super school” in Cleckheaton as Whitcliffe Mount was set to expand and middle schools in North Kirklees faced being scrapped

In late 2008 there was the prospect of Birkenshaw retaining a school with the middle school site being used to create a new secondary as part of the council’s £200m Building Schools for the Future (BSF) plans.

A vote of no confidence in the then Tory administration, however, led to the plans being shelved and the council leader Robert Light resigning. Coun Light, who is the ward councillor for Birstall and Birkenshaw, has supported the parents’ campaign and his wife Sharon is now the new school’s chair of governors.

At the time the council had proposed holding a ballot over their plans but opposition parties accused the Conservatives of indecision and putting the district’s BSF money at risk.

New plans were drawn up which would see Birkenshaw Middle close and pupils transferred to a new co-educational academy for 1,350 pupils on the site of Batley Girls’ High in Howden Clough.

At this stage the Birkenshaw, Birstall and Gomersal Parents Alliance (BBGPA) decided to try to open their own school in Birkenshaw.

They made their case to the then Children’s Secretary Ed Balls who commissioned an independent expert to produce a report on whether the school was needed.

Their bid was rejected by Mr Balls in 2010 on the grounds that it would leave existing schools with spare places.

The decision was taken two months before the General Election as the Conservatives were campaigning on the policy of allowing parents to create their own free schools.

Tory leader David Cameron and the then shadow children secretary Micheal Gove attended a rally organised by the BBGPA to support their cause. When the coalition came to power Mr Gove became Education Secretary and hailed one of the BBGPA parents, Nicki Woods, as his hero.

Plans for a new free school were given initial backing and looked set to be at the forefront of this new wave of schools. But there were several more twists to
come.

In 2011 Kirklees Council announced new plans to use the Birkenshaw Middle site to turn Birkenshaw First School into a primary.

BBGPA campaigners accused the council of coming up with this plan simply to stop them using the site for their free school.

However the council report at the time said creating the new primary at the middle school site was a better value use of capital resources than doing it on the first school site.

Campaigners remained determined to open a new school in Birkenshaw and so joined forces with the governors of the existing middle school to make use of another key Government policy.

By opting to become an academy Birkenshaw Middle School took itself out of council control to become BBG Academy. At the start of this term it moved into a new refurbished £5.9m premises and started a new life as a secondary school.