Our school is for all
In a recent Guardian, G Asquith asked if it was time to ask questions about BBG High School and how it will affect other local high schools and also if it was time that Kirklees Council offered a referendum on the high schools.
The high school in Birkenshaw will not take any money away from other high schools as it will be centrally funded, and BBG Parents' Alliance asked Kirklees Council for a referendum but were refused. I too would ask why Kirklees did not want a referendum!
Many children attending primary schools in North Kirklees live outside Kirklees but the current Kirklees proposals do not take these children into account in their figures for high school numbers.
These could have been at a Kirklees school with all their friends for eight years, then suddenly no high school place. Also the Kirklees plans only assume that 50 per cent of Birstall children will attend Howden Clough. Surely an outstanding school will attract all the local children. Add these facts together and North Kirklees needs another high school whether in Birkenshaw or somewhere else.
No one has ever asked for a new school in Birkenshaw, just a larger building that is refurbished. This has been a politically motivated comment made by those against the school and under the new government's education policy any capital outlay would come from central government not Kirklees Council's budget.
It takes articulate, pushy parents to get things done, not just for themselves but for all those in their communities as the school will not be selective. I understand these parents have a long term strategy for the high school and will be connected with it for many years - long after their children have left but G Asquith is right for asking.
A Wilson asked about the diversity of the school. It will serve its entire communities in the same way the current first and nursery schools do, which have been judged as either good or outstanding for their community cohesion.
Athough I am a Birkenshaw parent I would still like to see all children in the area being educated in smaller schools. The children of Cleckheaton would benefit from Whitcliffe reducing its numbers and I have yet to speak to anyone in Cleckheaton that supports an enlarged Whitcliffe Mount.
A COE
Tetley Drive
BIRKENSHAW
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Weather for Cleckheaton
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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