Comment: Clear this confusion

Jul 31 2008 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

MANY may rightly forget the cares of lessons and homework now that school holidays have kicked in.

But the six week break may well be frustrating for those connected with All Saints Catholic College in Bradley which currently stands at the centre of something of a mystery.

It is little more than a week since news broke that joint headteachers, Liam Harron and Mary Nixon, had been relieved of their duties.

At that stage, staff and parents seemed equally in the dark about why they had been suspended and Kirklees Council refused to comment on what was going on other than to say that this senior management team would be off duty for the foreseeable future

Now it seems that the council has already carried out a preliminary review of issues at the school due to concerns raised by two professional associations and one trade union. The suspensions which followed and saw the two headteachers removed from their posts are clearly in order that further inquiries can be made.

While the Catholic Church’s Leeds Diocese says that it will be working closely with the council and with governors at the college during this time, there are nevertheless, certain areas of concern.

An experienced head from another College has already been named and it is said will lead All Saints for the foreseeable future. That seems to suggest that a protracted investigation is expected and surely that is in no-one’s interests.

While all must receive the opportunity to put their cases openly and fully, the last thing needed by those concerned, whether that be students, staff, parents and indeed, Mr Harron and Ms Nixon, is more uncertainty and an atmosphere where rumour can thrive.

Parents say that they remain in the dark and when the futures of so many are at stake, surely they have a right to be kept as fully informed as is possible given the inevitably confidential nature of some of this kind of situation.