IF Queen's Park School has all the problems that Blackburn with Darwen Council claim it has, to justify closing the school and make teachers re-apply for their jobs, then it would appear good sense to try and collect as many allies as possible in order to build a coalition of interested supporting organisations with the object of trying to rebuild the reputation of the school.

Education executive member Councillor Dave Hollings seems intent on doing the opposite.

In the LET on October 9 he blamed Lancashire County Council for the problems at the school.

Not surprisingly he received a broadside from the County Council. And on October 11 the teachers' union said that "Teachers are contacting us having heard what is happening at Queen's Park and saying they would never work for an authority which is prepared to make teachers scapegoats like this."

Within a week of making his announcement the issue had escalated from Queen's Park School to a borough-wide problem.

The proposed closure and threatened sacking of 60 teachers with little or no consultation is a potentially expensive and time consuming legal minefield as well as being grossly unfair to the teachers and their pupils.

Over the past 25 years many experienced teachers have taken early retirement to escape the league tables, the inspections and the increase in form filling and bureaucracy imposed by successive Tory and New Labour governments who have had little or no sympathy with the principle of comprehensive education.

The ones that are left in difficult schools deserve medals or at least increased support, but certainly not the sack.

DON RISHTON, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.