Blackburn school's academy bid ‘could derail BSF plan’

Beardwood Humanities College, which is due to shut next year, has lodged an 11th-hour application to become an academy.

If it succeeds, it would take Beardwood out of local authority control and allow it to remain open.

Council bosses admit the shock move would have a ‘domino effect’ on the entire Building Schools for the Future Programme.

Beardwood is set to shut in July 2012, with Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School moving into the site.

If Beardwood was successful in becoming an academy, Tauheedul would be unable to leave its Bicknell Street site.

There would also be surplus places at the New East Blackburn school being built on Haslingden Road as well as Witton Park and Pleckgate schools.

The New East Blackburn school replaces Blakewater College, Shadsworth Road, which is due to close next summer.

Our Lady and St John will temporarily move to the Blakewater site while it is redeveloped in the summer of 2012.

Darwen Vale school is being rebuilt on site, with the students temporarily transferred to Holden Fold.

St Bede’s High School will be rebuilt in phases on the same site, while St Thomas's Pupil Referral Unit will be renovated at its existing site.

Council bosses are confident ministers will reject Beardwood's application because of its wide-reaching consequences.

And the Government said the knock-on effect on other schools would be taken into consideration.

Beardwood governors voted unanimously to proceed with the bid, which would take the school out of the council’s control and give it control over its finances, at an extraordinary meeting.

A letter was sent to parents yesterday informing them of the plans.

Headteacher Ruby Hussain said the plans were in their ‘infancy’ but insisted: “The decision is with the Department for Education (DfE) but we realise we have a chance and a possibility to save the school.

"The application is only in its initial stages.

“Parents have been put through a washing machine of emotions and we don’t want to raise expectations unnecessarily.

"We are exploring this. We are putting the paperwork in to see if there is a possibility.”

There was fierce opposition when plans were first unveiled to close Beardwood.

Mrs Hussain said a change in the Department for Education’s criteria to ‘well performing schools’ could help their chances.

She insisted: “There would be no upheaval if we stayed open.

"Tauheedul would stay on the same site, if it wanted to move there are other sites.”

Similar moves are believed to have failed in other parts of the country, including Bath.

Coun Maureen Bateson, the council executive member for children's services, said: “It would be a domino effect.

"There is a whole raft of things that’d be affected.”

She said the DfE had already approved the borough’s BSF programme and invited the Beardwood governors to a meeting with the council, adding: “I am surprised to hear the governors at Beardwood are meeting to discuss the possibility of applying for academy status as the decision has already been made to close the college.

"As such we could not support this type of proposal if it was put forward.”

Despite opposing the academy programme, unions sympathised with the school’s bid to ‘save themselves’.

National Union of Teachers rep Simon Jones said he was also seeking a judicial review against the decision to close Beardwood.

He said: “I understand the reason behind it but I still think academies are wrong unfortunately.

“But we support the school with other initiatives to save what is a very good school that is doing a very good job in that part Blackburn.

“We are not in support of it but we have a lot of sympathy as the school is only doing it to save themselves.”

A DfE spokesman said it was aware of the interest, but no formal application had been received so far.

He said: “We deal with each application on a case-by-case basis.

"We’ve set out clear exceptional circumstances which may prevent an academy conversion going ahead including wider school reorganisations.

“We work closely with schools and local authorities to assess specific circumstances before making a decision.”

Tauheedul head Hamid Patel said he had not yet seen any firm proposals and declined to comment.