TEACHERS and support staff have joined the storm of protest at proposals to close a secondary school and replace it with a college run by a controversial Christian foundation.
Unions are angry that staff have not been given the chance to pull Northcliffe School out of special measures after government inspector labelled it as failing in the spring.
Mayor of Doncaster Martin Winter has asked the north east-based Vardy Fo
undation, which is due to take over Thorne Grammar School next year, to consider setting up a college in Conisbrough. The foundation would contribute around £2 million to build a new college for 11 to 18 year olds, with the government pitching in with the remaining £22 million.
But the teaching unions, the NUT and NASUWT, along with public sector unions Unison and GMB, believe that the amount of control the foundation will have is disproportionate to their financial input and say it amounts to privatisation.
NUT representative Matthew Bailey said: "We want our school to be adequately funded and provide state of the art facilities with which to educate the young people of Conisbrough and Denaby - but not with these strings attached.
"While other LEAs such as Hull and Sheffield are turning the foundation away, Doncaster, and Mayor Winter specifically, are inviting them in. It is easy to feel like the local authority wishes to wash their hands of our school, while we would rather stay under locally accountable LEA control."
Formal consultation on the proposals started this month and Doncaster Council's ruling cabinet is due to take a decision on whether to hand over the school on July 28.
Pupils and former students of the school are planning a protest march through Conisbrough and neighbouring Denaby Main on Saturday, June 19, setting off from the school on Gardens Lane at noon.
Worried parents - initially concerned at the lack of information forthcoming from Doncaster Council - have already held several meetings and more are planned.
Staff and parents who have studied information about the foundation's two existing schools share concerns about the likely admission policy, and the curriculum. The teaching of the biblical theory of creationism, alongside the scientific theory of Charles Darwin, has caused controversy.
