Furious parents packed into a stormy public meeting to protest against plans to transform a failing Darlaston school into a privately-sponsored academy.
Millionaire businessman and Evangelical Christian Bob Edmiston wants to open his third Grace Academy at Darlaston Community Science College to go alongside similar ones he already sponsors in Coventry and Chelmsley Wood. The school was put into special measures earlier this year following a damning report by Ofsted inspectors.
They highlighted poor teaching, disruptive pupils and too many children skipping lessons in the report.
But angry parents are still desperate to see the academy plans stopped, and have voiced fears that too much time could be spent teaching pupils about creation theories if the new academy was launched.
Dozens of campaigners who gathered at nearby Salisbury Primary School, in Salisbury Street, for a public meeting last night branded a consultation into the plans a farce and said their views had not been listened to.
They also complained Walsall Council and Serco – the firm paid to run education in the borough – had presented no real alternative.
Finance worker and parent governor Mahmood Patel, aged 42, from nearby Whitton Street, has a child in year 11 and two who have already been through the school. “If these academies are such a good thing for our children, why not have them everywhere in the borough? If it’s good enough for Darlaston, it’s good enough for everywhere,” he said.
Another parent Mahmood Sacha, from Bright Street, said: “The funding would be better spent through the existing arrangements.
“It feels very much like this is already signed and sealed.”
David Wootton, Executive Principal for Grace Academies, insisted the curriculum would not be swamped with Christian teachings.
He told the meeting the school would have a strong ethos based on Christian values and that its existing academies had seen a big improvements in results.
A final decision is set to be made later this month.
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