Blackburn with Darwen Council announced its Building Schools for the Future plan last October with many seeing it as a golden opportunity to increase the level of integration in schools. But is the council really intent on grasping this nettle or is it hindered by the perceived dangers of social engineering?

THERE is no guarantee that a £150million transformation of education Blackburn with Darwen will bring higher levels of integration, council chiefs have admitted.

In October, the council announced its Building Schools For the Future masterplan to create three super schools in the borough to allow a "fully inclusive, integrated framework of learning provision."

This meant the borough's four faith schools would be urged to broaden their intakes to tackle segregation and create multi-faith schools.

But education chiefs have now said their vision for pupils of all faiths to mix was not a certainty stating: "We can not speculate about where pupils will go."

Their stance has come under fire from critics who say parents will choose to place their children with pupils of the same faith.

As first revealed by the Lancashire Telegraph, three new super schools are set to be built in Blackburn, by as early as 2011, and four will close in the huge overhaul of education in the borough.

Announcing the plans in October the council said: "We see BSF as vehicle for us to work collaboratively, building further on our cohesion work, creating learning environments throughout the borough where all can develop an understanding and appreciation of diversity and sense of belonging to Blackburn with Darwen."

As part of the BSFplan it is proposed that Blackburn's Pleckgate High School Mathematics and Computing College, Witton Park High School Specialist Business and Enterprise College, and Blakewater College would be rebuilt as super schools' - possibly as early as 2011.

They will cater for 1,350, 1,200 and 900 pupils respectively and could open as early as 2011 But believing the west of Blackburn "will not support three community schools" due to a predicted fall in population, Beardwood is earmarked for closure as it is on "the least satisfactory site for development."

Although the building could absorb the borough's Muslim state school Tauheedul, which in 2011 is expected to have 600 pupils, the council says it could not be expanded to accommodate a 1,000-plus pupil super school.

The council's BSF submission outlining the plans for the scheme states Witton and Pleckgate will be expanded "to accommodate those pupils that might have otherwise have chosen Beardwood."

Currently Witton Park has 1,062 pupils - 28 per cent are Asian; compared to 73.1 per cent at 1,190-pupil Pleckgate and 93 per cent at 1,032-pupil Beardwood.

If Pleckgate and Witton were to absorb all Beardwood pupils based on current figures it would create a mix of 65 per cent Asian, 35 per cent non-Asian.

However education chiefs have admitted there is no guarantee that Beardwood parents will want to send their children to either of the schools.

Peter Morgan, Blackburn with Darwen council's director of children's services, said: "We have been able to accurately predict the numbers of places that will be needed in schools across the borough to meet the size of population, but how this will break down in terms of the make-up of population in each school is far more difficult."

He added: "We can not forecast exact numbers for individual schools or estimate the makeup of the school population in terms of gender or ethnicity because that is subject to parental choice. We promote parental choice and we can't influence that or predict how that choice will change.

"Current pupils at any school proposed for closure will not be affected by the proposed change because no school closures are planned before 2011.

"The parents of pupils who might have gone to one of the schools proposed for closure will make their own choices about where their children will go instead. We can not speculate about where pupils will go."

But he stressed that the council hopes to bring about integration through a host of methods such as twinning projects with schools of different faiths and by allowing all pupils to use the facilities and share expertise of other schools in the borough.

He said: "We need to get away from this idea that a school is one place where one group of people can mix. There are lots of ways to bring young people together and we already have some excellent examples of schools working such as twinning projects involving pupils from a variety of different backgrounds.

"Under Building Schools for the Future, schools will not be operating alone but as part of a family of schools for young people and the wider community. Young people from one school may well be able to access provision and expertise from other schools and they will be mixing with other pupils at the same time."

Another way the council hopes to see greater integration is to use the government's new school admission code to create a "revised admission system" at Blackburn's four faith schools: Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School, St Wilfrid's C of E High School and Technology College; Our Lady and St John Catholic Arts College and St Bede's Roman Catholic High School.

But in reality the new admission codes, which came into force in February, are unlikely to see more non-faith pupils on roll.

As although the code insist all schools "must admit whichever applicants wish to apply for the school," when oversubscribed, as nearly all faith schools are, they can give "higher priority" to pupils practising their faith or denomination."

Canon Chris Chivers at Blackburn Cathedral, who has the responsibility for inter-faith relations in East Lancashire fears the BSF scheme could actually increase segregation..

"The government are anxious to give parents choice but it may be fine for London but the problem in Lancashire is we self segregate and there is no guarantee the council's BSF will work. In fact I believe the likelihood is for a deeper segregated educational landscape. The council are trying to make things better but it's a bit pie in the sky."

NUT Lancashire executive member Simon Jones added: "I admire what the council are trying to do but they are going about it in the wrong way.

"It's costing £150million and they are mortgaging our future. "The scheme in all its grandeur is too simplistic .To work you need the will of parents."

Leader of the Conservatives in the borough, Coun Colin Rigby said: "There is no guarantee it will work and it is a pipe dream. "I fear the whole thing will go pear-shaped."

But Coun Maureen Bateson, executive member for children's services insisted: "We are clear that we want to achieve an excellent level of provision in the borough for pupils, parents and the wider community.

"We are committed to and will provide for the needs and preferences of all the young people in the borough through a range of first class, shared facilities.

"We are still in the very early stages and there is a long way to go before the final programme is signed off by the government."