Faith school plan concerns (From Swindon Advertiser)

Faith school plan concerns

9:30am Thursday 13th November 2008 in

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NORTH Swindon’s newest primary school could be a single faith facility for Muslims, it has been claimed.

The battle for a school in Oakhurst has raged for years and earlier this year anxious parents got the news they were waiting for when they heard a multi-million pound facility would be built in the community.

Now it has emerged that as well as Swindon Council, the Al Habib Islamic Centre in Manchester Road has made a bid to run the school.

No details about the centre’s plans for the school, including admissions policy or curriculum, have been released to the Advertiser.

But at a summer meeting about the proposal, Shahid Sahu, chairman of the Islamic centre, said if his group’s bid to run the school was successful, it would become a single faith school.

Roger Ogle, who was at the meeting, said when Mr Sahu was asked if his bid was successful would Oakhurst become a single faith school, he said: “Yes.”

Numerous attempts by the Advertiser to contact Mr Sahu were unsuccesful, but someone at the centre confirmed that a bid to run the school had been lodged.

Coun Garry Perkins, cabinet member for children services on Swindon Council, said there would be a public meeting to discuss the plan.

He confirmed that the group was the Al Habib Islamic Centre and that there would be a public meeting on November 25, run by the Office of Public Management, which is overseeing the bid process.“It’s very much out of our hands,” said Coun Perkins.

“The school was needed to catch up with the requirements of parents in the area so I’m more than a little bit concerned that the school may not be able to provide these children with the places we know are required.”

Coun Justin Tomlinson (Cons, Abbey Meads) said: “As the ward councillors we will be doing everything we possibly can to support the council’s community school bid, which will offer the maximum number of places to local residents.”

Residents will have an opportunity to comment on the two proposals at a public meeting at 6.30pm on November 25 at the Orchid Vale Primary School, on Torun Way.

The schools adjudicator will make the final decision on which bid is successful.

Coun Tomlinson said the school had been long awaited by parents in the area and that if it opened tomorrow it would be full.

But he said a Muslim faith school could cause anxieties.

He said: “We are 100 per cent opposed to this bid. Their admissions policy will be linked to faith, rather than distance from school. This will potentially leave local children unable to access this much-needed new school.

“There could be a different admissions policy, which could lead to local residents being unwilling or unable to go to the school,” he said.

North Swindon MP Michael Wills said: “I fought so hard to secure the funding for this school because I know how desperately it is needed for local parents in Oakhurst.

“For far too long the parents there have had to take siblings to different schools and travel unacceptable long distances.”

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