I was at a meeting this week with some local headteachers and the Birkenshaw Parents Group and Serco, the private company chosen by the parents to run the school.

One of the issues dscussed was the proposed date for opening the school – if it gets the go-ahead.

Birkenshaw Middle School has a closure date of July 2013. That is a legally binding decision. It means that, if the “free” school gets permission, it simply cannot open until 2013. The Serco representative acknowledged that in the meeting. He said that the only way it could open in 2012 was by having many mobile classrooms and sharing facilities with the Middle school.

In their desperation to get a “free” school opened in 2012, the Birkenshaw parents group are willing to have a school consisting ONLY of temporary classrooms. They also are willing to put a huge additional strain on the existing facilities at Birkenshaw Middle for science, technology, sport and dining / social areas by demanding that “their” pupils use these facilities as well.

Anyone who has the best interests of all children at heart will dismiss this hare-brained idea immediately.