£44M FOR FIVE NEW SCHOOLS

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A £44m plan to create five new schools in Derby has finally got the go-ahead. A worrying shortfall of almost £8m, identified in January, in Derby City Council's outline business case for its private finance initiative is to be plugged by Whitehall. In 2001, the city council applied to the Government for approval to spend £36m building the new schools to replace inadequate buildings at seven schools in the city. This was given the provisional go-ahead.

But after council officials put the outline business case together, it was discovered that the project, due for completion by 2006, is likely to cost £43.8m. There were concerns that because the PFI is over-subscribed nationally, the Government might not give approval for the additional money. A PFI works by allowing local authorities to enter into a contract with a private company to build and maintain its schools.

The city council will pay leasing and maintenance costs to the contractor for 25 years and at the end of that period, the schools will revert to the ownership of the council. The news means that Merrill College, currently on two sites, will move on to one campus at Uppermoor Road, Allenton; a new 800-pupil school will be built on the site of High View School, St Andrew's View, Breadsall Estate; and a new 150-pupil school will be built to replace Sinfin Primary School in Sheridan Street.

Hardwick Infant in Dover Street, and Hardwick Junior School in Hastings Street, will be replaced by one 420-pupil primary school on the existing site. Wilmorton Community Primary School, London Road, and Southgate Infant School, Brighton Road, will be replaced by a single school on a new site. The council is consulting on three options for the new site which are Alvaston Park, London Road; open space at Crewton allotments; and land next to the recently opened link-road to Pride Park.

In addition to new schools, the project will be looking to include adult and community learning and sports and recreational activities. Construction of the schools will begin in summer, 2004, with completed schools being phased in from September, 2005. Michael Foote, city council director of corporate services, said, "We're pleased that we can now work with the schools to develop the final proposals. The final cost of the project will be known after it goes out to tender and bids are received later this year."

A mother is annoyed at being asked to donate books to a Derby school where much of the interior was knocked down and destroyed after an asbestos scare. Silverhill Primary in Mickleover, shut temporarily after workmen found asbestos during building work. Letters were sent out to parents after hundred of books were destroyed during the £750,000 council-funded operation. The books were insured against fire, lightning damage and theft, but not against accidental damage. Derby City Council said it could not insure against such an incident.

But Sara Derbyshire, whose son attends the school, said families should not have to donate books. She said, "This is their fault, they are responsible for it and they should be dealing with it and not asking parents for hand-outs. Obviously the school relies on a local authority, so it's down to the local authority because they are responsible for whatever goes on at the school. If it does get to a situation where I don't feel my son is getting the education he should be getting at the school, I shall definitely consider moving him."

A girl was unlawfully excluded from school for wearing a traditional Muslim gown. Lord Justice Brooke said Denbigh High School in Luton, Beds, denied Shabina Begum, 16, now at another school, the right to manifest her religion. He called for more guidance for schools on complying with the Human Rights Act. Miss Begum called the ruling a victory for Muslims who wanted to "preserve their identity and values".

Miss Begum said, "It is amazing that in the so-called free world I have to fight to wear this attire." Lawyers at the Children's Legal Centre which represented Miss Begum said the judgement was a "landmark victory" which could have wide-ranging consequences for the freedom to manifest religious beliefs and a "significant impact" on school dress codes.

In their ruling the Appeal Court judges said the school had a right to set a school uniform policy but nobody had considered Miss Begum had a right recognised by English law. The onus lay on the school to justify any interference with that right, the judges ruled. Lord Justice Brooke said, "Instead, it started from the premise that its uniform policy was there to be obeyed: if the claimant did not like it, she could go to a different school."

A spokesperson for Luton borough council said they would be developing guidance on school uniform and advising Luton schools' governing bodies to review their uniform policy to take account of religious and cultural needs. Shadow education secretary Tim Collins said it should be for "schools alone" to decide their dress code. "This case yet again reflects the way in which the Human Rights Act is unduly restricting the freedom of head teachers to run their schools in their own way," he said.

Miss Begum lost her appeal at the House of Lords. Judges said the school had "taken immense pains to devise a uniform policy which respected Muslim beliefs" and that the school "went to unusual lengths to inform parents of its uniform policy." They said, "The rules laid down were as far from being mindless as uniform rules could ever be. It appeared the rules were acceptable to mainstream Muslim opinion." Lord Bingham ruled that the two-year interruption of her schooling was the result of her "unwillingness to comply with a rule to which the school was entitled to adhere". (Source: BBC News, Mar/06)

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