Letter: PM promise in tatters

BBG Academy was a school that was created using the Government’s disastrous Free Schools policy, and personally promised to the people of Birkenshaw by David Cameron in the run up to the 2010 election. But clever election tricks do not equate to a good school for local children.

Worryingly, OFSTED have said that “the school’s work to keep students safe and secure is inadequate.” As a parent the very minimum you demand is that your kids come home safe and unharmed every evening.

Those who pushed so hard for this school, many of whom now run it, have jeopardised the futures of thousands of local children – not just those attending BBG but those across the area as its creation destabilises established schools.

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A lot of questions must now be asked. I hope that if not the Government then certainly Kirklees will launch an inquiry into what has gone so spectacularly wrong and answer some of the other fundamental questions parents have. Not least, how many unqualified teachers were employed and why there was such a turn over of staff?

Those Conservative councillors and supporters who were obsessed with having their own personal school need to take a long hard look at themselves and offer parents answers. The report is damning of leadership at every level and make no mistake, these are the people responsible for the failings at this school.

Why should parents trust the very people who put BBG into this mess to get the school out of it?

If parents begin to take their children out of this school, as now seems inevitable, the cost to the local authority will be huge, at a time when we simply can not afford it. But who can blame those parents for doing just that?

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This is also a huge indictment of the judgement of the local Conservative leaders who forced this school into being and an indictment of the Government’s woeful and failed education policies.

Moving forward dramatic changes are needed at the school. Pupils and teachers need support to make this a tenable school in the future.

Dathan Tedesco

Labour candidate for Birstall and Birkenshaw

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