Council chief seeks Government pledge on school building drive

The council has drawn up a blueprint to overhaul schools in the north of the area and is in the final stages of its bid.

It is part of the Government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, but there are fears that a squeeze on public sector spending could now hit the scheme.

The results of a spending review are due in the autumn, and leader Coun Mehboob Khan, has written to education secretary, Michael Gove, setting out the benefits of BSF locally, and the risks associated with not going ahead with the 280m funding package at this late stage of the process.

He said: "I am mindful that there is nervousness regarding BSF.

"This is our chance to achieve a massive change in attainment, achievement and aspiration by a programme of change management and capital investment that will transform the ways our young people learn, how our schools are configured, managed and led, and the quality of our learning environments.

"If we are to meet our six key aims in the future education programme, then the Government must listen to us."

The aims include raising attainment through a broad curriculum; improving performance; improving inclusion and providing school places where they are most needed and appropriate and promoting community cohesion.

Kirklees Council has already submitted its outline business case for its BSF project and a bidder for the building of the schools is expected to be chosen next year.

Coun Khan said in his letter: "We have undertaken extensive public consultation over the last three years, resulting in (to date) 19 sets of statutory decisions relating to school closures, creating new schools, adjusting sizes, age ranges and priority admission areas.

"We have particularly sought the views of all parents to help shape the new system and proposed a pattern of provision that both meets the balance of parental and pupil wishes as expressed, whilst shaping

a viable and sustainable system.

"In some parts of Kirklees we have engaged with parents in up to four separate consultations as we have tailored the plans to fit their aspirations for their children.

"In this context, and given the scale and importance of our collective ambition in Kirklees, we feel strongly that any reduction in capital investment through BSF would not only reduce our capacity to provide stimulating and high quality learning environments, but could fundamentally affect our drive to improve standards."

In Kirklees the BSF project has however attracted some opposition.

The Birkenshaw, Birstall and Gomersal Parents Alliance wants to open a new 900-place secondary school on the site of Birkenshaw Middle School which is set to be closed under Kirklees Council's Building Schools for the Future plan.

It believes the existing council plans will leave some parents in Birkenshaw, Birstall and Gomersal without a place at a local school for their children.

The team of parents has already had plans for their own school in Birkenshaw rejected by the last Government but they are hopeful the plan might be back on track thanks to the new coalition Government which wants to pave the way for a new generation of state schools run by groups of parents or teachers.

The group of Kirklees parents could be among the first in the country to open its own secondary school in Birkenshaw under the reforms.