Who would go where in schools shake-up

A CHILD'S education is a top priority for its parents.

So proposals which amount to a root and branch overhaul of the local schools system and which affect the education of thousands of children are obviously going to hit raw nerves.

And add social and racial divisions to the annual admissions crisis that plagues Burnley and the concern over the county council plans is both obvious and understandable.

Much of the worry surrounds the proposals to change the current admissions policy, where parents apply to schools of their choice, to a system of catchment areas.

The move is aimed at eradicating the problems which have dogged admissions for years - namely that three schools, Habergham, Ivy Bank and Gawthorpe, receive more applications than they have places, leaving parents unable to find a first choice place for their children. The problems even led to one group of parents setting up their own DIY school.

And the Burnley Task Force - set up following the 2001 riots - said problems in the education system in terms of a lack of social integration were one of the key causes of the disturbances in the town.

That prompted Lancashire County Council to put forward its plans to bulldoze the borough's high schools and replace them with five brand new state-of-the-art buildings.

The new system is aimed at addressing some of the problems by introducing geographical priority - or catchment areas - so children from a certain designated area will attend a school in that area.

Mike Waite, Burnley Council's head of community cohesion and engagement, said: "It was agreed there needed to be more predictability about where children were likely to be offered a place as this has

been a big issue in Burnley for many years.

"Another concern was about the ethnic and cultural mix and that schools might become more mono-cultural than some are already.

"What we want to see are places where people from different backgrounds live and grow-up together. That is the right way to build good community relations. It has not been an easy challenge, but there is now a proposal where there are ethnic mixes and which balance up numbers from different areas with the capacity of the schools."

Earlier this year Burnley councillors raised concerns that plans to transform the education system would reinforce the problems that exist in the borough's high schools.

A written response to the county's vision for the borough's schools urged county hall to rethink plans to introduce geographic priority areas for all the new community schools, which are aimed at making the admission arrangements more understandable for parents.

The response read: "We are concerned that the current proposals in relation to geographic priority areas will have the effect of reinforcing current patterns of division, and will in fact lead to the pupil profiles of all the new schools being more segregated than some are at present. This would be an extremely negative step."

The county council's latest proposals, however, have shifted the largely Asian Stoneyholme area into area A - largely made up of Padiham - which means both schools A and D, which covers north east Burnley, will have a more ethnic mix. Education bosses expect to see 75 per cent white and 23 per cent ethnic minority pupils at school A, possibly based off Kiddrow Lane, and 66 per cent white and 29 per cent ethnic minority at school D, likely to be at the site currently occupied by Walshaw.

But the leader of the Conservatives on Burnley council Peter Doyle, said he still had concerns. He added: "Changing the boundaries to include Stoneyholme could be a political nightmare because there are three British National Party councillors in that area of Padiham and Hapton. Rather than improve racial relations, it could have exactly the opposite effect.

"But we do want this to work as it is the most important issue facing the borough.

"Some 44,000 leaflets were sent out on this issue as part of the consultation process and only 400 were returned. I think that the problems will surface once the schools are built and children are allocated their places, because unfortunately parents will want to choose the school they prefer."

He added the possible site of school B in Rossendale Road was beset with problems, including a lack of public transport and planning issues as it lay outside the council's own urban development area.

But as well as easing the earlier fears of most Burnley councillors, the new plans have been welcomed by headteachers.

Andrew Mackenzie, headteacher at Gawthorpe, said: "The priority areas have been revised and I think appear to work well. The new plans are an improvement on the original version and I am very positive that we are moving towards firmer proposals. This is the countdown to bringing in the best schools for our children."