PARENTS and teachers can have their say on controversial proposals to transform education in villages around Huddersfield.

Kirklees Council will launch a consultation next month about the plan to allow 11 and 12-year-olds to attend Shelley College.

The school – which currently educates 1,400 pupils aged between 13 and 18 – is part of the Shelley Pyramid, a group of 20 schools around Kirkburton and Denby Dale.

Shelley College became an academy in September 2011, meaning it is no longer under the council’s influence – unlike all the other schools in the pyramid.

If the expansion goes ahead in 2014, the college could gain 360 new pupils at the expense of the area’s two middle schools in Kirkburton and Scissett.

The school will launch its own consultation on the expansion plan next month.

And now Kirklees will hold its own wider survey about the plan.

The council’s assistant director for learning John Edwards has written to 6,000 parents, teachers and governors about the consultation.

He wrote: “Kirklees Council would like to reassure you that no decisions or firm plans have been made about changes to any schools in the area. Shelley College governors will decide in due course whether to proceed with their proposal.

“Kirklees Council is working closely with all the other schools involved – the two middle schools, the 16 first schools and the nursery school – to look at the range of different options for change that may be necessary in this new situation.

“The council’s first priority is to make sure that all local children and young people have the opportunity to attend excellent schools, helping them to achieve their potential.

“Naturally, any debate about possible changes can be unsettling for families and communities.