Children fighting plans to close their comprehensive school say that they have a right to be consulted under international law.
| Most of the pupils want the school kept open. |
In 1991 Britain signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which defines basic rights for children in more than 160 countries and guarantees people under the age of 18 'the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings' affecting them.
But 400 children at Newcastle-upon-Tyne's Blakelaw Comprehensive School say those rights appear to mean little in practice.
Their school has been threatened with closure for the last year and they have had no opportunity to express an opinion about their future.
The school is being closed because it has a high number of pupils leaving without educational qualifications, truancy rates more than eight times the national average and a failing pupil intake, which means less money. It has failed its inspection by the Office for Standards in Education.
But most of the pupils want the school kept open, citing as reasons the problems of making new friends, having continuity in their chosen exam options, adapting to a new environment, relating to new teachers and losing teachers with whom they have developed a relationship.
The head of the city's education committee, Councillor Darren Murphy, has told them the council would be going outside the law if they were consulted.
He said the Labour-controlled city council, has to consult formally with the parents. It has to consult formally with the governing body and it has to consult formally with the staff but it doesn't have to consult formally with the pupils in that school.
There can be no consultation with pupils. It's not within the system. If we go beyond the law, or if we don't fit with every last dot and comma that it suggests, then we can be challenged in the courts.
Mr Murphy says there is no precedent by any local education authority in the country that allows consultation with young people about their educational future.
What we need is a statutory requirement to consult, he said. I think it would be far more reasonable to have a situation where there was a process of consulting with the young people in the school. That would make sense, but I think we have to abide by the
law.
It is not only children who oppose the closure. More than 10,000 people, including staff, governors and parents, have signed a protest petition. They say an action plan could improve standards.
The National Union of Teachers describes the proposal as a demonstrable folly and a totally negative reaction to a very serious but not insuperable problem.
But the city council is not convinced standards can be raised sufficiently.
They should give the school a chance, said 11-year-old Gemma McFadyen, echoing the views of most of her classmates.
Janine Bell, 15, another pupil, hopes to be sitting eight GCSEs next year. She is anxious about being transferred to another school. I'm worried about losing my options and I'm worried about not having the same friends.
She is also concerned about being bullied at a new school. A couple of my pals who have been to Kenton [a nearby comprehensive] have been beaten up.
She believes the school should be allowed to die off by letting current pupils continue with their teachers and courses and allowing no new intake.
The final decision will made by Education Secretary Gillian Shephard within a few weeks.
About the team
This story was conducted by editors: Janine Bell, 15, Rachel Bulford, 15, and reporters Amy Wood, I3, Gemma McFadyen, 11, and Gemma Graham, 11. It was published in The Observer.
