Parents hope to hijack the debate over a schools shake-up after lining up prominent experts for their own education conference.
Northumberland Education Action Group will stage a conference at Alnwick Castle on March 5 because it says proposals to close middle schools take no account of whether education would benefit. Experts including Durham University professor Peter Tymms and John Abbott, president of the 21st-Century Learning Initiative, will speak.
The conference is the latest attempt by parents to challenge the county council's plans for re-organisation which would close 44 middle schools. Council chiefs say the changes would free funds for other schools and put the county more in line with the National Curriculum.
The action group has invited county education officials to speak at the conference. But the council has dismissed the event as irrelevant and pointed out that it takes place after consultation on the schools plan has ended.
Action group chairman Joe Ronan said: "The re-organisation has been about finance and structures, but the one thing the county can't be drawn on is whether children will benefit educationally." The event will be chaired by Bill Midgley, president of the British Chambers of Commerce.
A county council spokesman said: "We are currently having one of the biggest consultations this authority has ever had and we're holding meetings all over the county."
Northumberland
